Hong Kong-based private equity firm Eurasia Capital Partners has signed an agreement to pay $100m for a 35% stake in Russian investor Rusresorts’ $1bn all-season mountain ski resort project on Lake Baikal in Siberia. Rusresorts owner said the Baikal resort has great potential in Asia, with Beijing only two hours by plane and over 1bn consumers four hours’ flight away, while Asian international tourism is growing at a “fantastic” rate – and the partnership will allow Rusresorts to attract major Asian investors, tour operators and contractors. Eurasia Managing Partner Sergio Men agreed, saying the resort at Baikal, the largest freshwater lake in the world, draws on unique natural peculiarities.

Baikal resort will have an international-standard infrastructure to accommodate 10,000 tourists, 112 km of ski tracks and a resort town with 400,000 sq.m. of commercial real estate. The first stage is scheduled to begin in May 2012 and to open in summer 2013. The target is around 3,500 hotel rooms and 2,500 homes on the project.