Azernews.Az

Azerbaijan's state oil fund SOFAZ plans to buy property in the center of Moscow, Russian Trade Representative in Azerbaijan Yuri Shchedrin told media.

"SOFAZ plans to buy VIP-estate in Moscow to implement business activity," Shchedrin said.

He said that SOFAZ's recent decision on asset placement in rubles in the Russian financial market testifies to the trusting relations between the parties.

He added that SOFAZ will place around $500 million in the Russian financial market in the near future.

"The first stage envisages the placement of 3 billion rubles or about $100 million through Gazprombank," he said. "The negotiations on SOFAZ's placing the ruble assets are being held with Russian bank VTB, Vnesheconombank, Russian Agricultural Bank and Savings Bank."

According to the new investment strategy, SOFAZ began investing in assets denominated in Russian rubles on October 19. At present, SOFAZ's investment portfolio includes only short-term deposit in the Russian Gazprombank to the amount of 3 billion rubles ($ 100 million).

SOFAZ plans to expand its ruble portfolio to $300 million by late 2012. The list of banks, in which the deposits will be placed, is planned to be expanded to diversify the ruble portfolio.

The currency structure of the oil fund's investment portfolio allows holding 50 percent of assets in US dollars, 40 percent in euros and 5 percent in British pounds. 5 percent is reserved for the currencies of Russia, Turkey and G7 countries.

Sofaz assets, as of October 1, 2012, amounted to $33.192 billion, increasing by 11.4 percent compared to the beginning of 2012 when the figure was $29.8 billion.

It is predicted that by late 2012, SOFAZ assets reach $34 billion.