Moscow, Aug 21 - Businessman Igor Babayev, founder and co-owner of Russian meat firm Cherkizovo , plans to invest over $300 million building 10 family-run milk plants in Russia within the next three to five years.
Babayev said he would assume 30 percent of the 10 billion-rouble cost himself. State-controlled banks Sberbank , VTB , Gazprombank and Rosselkhozbank would provide loans to cover the remaining 70 percent, he said.
Babayev's own firm, Milk Holding, will create the chain of small farms. Each will have 100-150 cows, a processing plant with capacity for 40-45 tonnes of milk a day and mobile retail shops, Babayev told reporters late on Thursday.
"In September, we plan to open the first plant and farm and to start retail trade in Lipetsk," he said, referring to a region 450 km (280 miles) south of Moscow in Russia's Black Earth agricultural region.
The families that run each farm will have the right to buy out the owners within 15 to 20 years.
Babayev, 59, and members of his family own the controlling stake in London-listed Cherkizovo, which posted net income of $78.1 million in 2008, up 27 percent year-on-year.
The milk investment is a separate business.