A joint Russian-Chinese fund will invest over $200 million in a Russian forestry company under a preliminary deal announced on Friday on the fringes of a summit held to promote economic cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region.

The Russia-China Investment Fund would become a shareholder in Russia Forest Products, Russia's second-largest forestry products firm, in a deal that would enable the business to produce higher-value processed products.

The deal was announced by the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which was set up last year with $10 billion from the state to co-invest in private-equity style deals with foreign partners.

Russian Forest Product holds annual allowable rights to fell more than 4.5 million cubic metres of timber and has long-term leases on 6.4 million hectares of forest. It accounts for around 10 percent of Russia's timber exports to China, the RDIF said.

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