OREANDA-NEWS. JSC RusHydro (ticker symbol: MICEX-RTS, LSE: HYDR; OTCQX: RSHYY) announces that it has signed an agreement with Sberbank on banking services related to the construction of power facilities in the Far East.

The document is aimed at ensuring maximum transparency of budget funds’ spend in the total amount of RUR 50 bn earmarked for the construction of four thermal power projects in the Far East: heat and power plant in Sovetskaya Gavan’, the Sakhalinskaya power plant No.2 (the 1st stage), the Yakutskaya power plant No.2 (the 1st stage) and the Blagoveschenskaya power plant No.2 (the 2nd stage).

In accordance with the agreement, Sberbank will provide a whole range of banking services related to the construction of power facilities in the Far East. The bank will open a separate bank account for each participant of the construction process, which will be used to make payments for the completed construction and installation works.

The Bank will hire an independent engineering company to conduct the price and technology audit and analyze the technical solutions applied at each construction project.

In order to inform the government, the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Economic Development on the projects’ progress, the parties will prepare monthly reports.

Evgeny Dod, Chairman of RusHydro’s Management Board, commented: “The agreement with Sberbank is an important tool allowing the government to assess and analyze the progress of project implementation on a regular basis; ensure the efficiency of the investments and control the proper use of funds. We also plan to create the internal corporate body to control the implementation of our projects in the Far East in addition to the existing monitoring system of RusHydro. All these measures will provide maximum transparency and full control of the government and other stakeholders while implementing strategically important infrastructure projects.”

“Sberbank of Russia already has an extensive experience of providing banking services for major investment projects. This is a pilot project of complex banking services providing for improvement of investment project efficiency with engineering company involvement”, said Bella Zlatkis, Deputy Chairman of the Management Board of Sberbank of Russia.