THE US$10 million profit guarantee given to mainboard-listed Acma Ltd by its new Russian partner, Avangard 500 (AVG), last month is "on the low side", said AVG director Mikhail Polyakov yesterday.

At a press conference to introduce his firm's senior management, he said: "We may be a young company but we have very good connections and we have leveraged on those connections to win large construction contracts. This year, we expect turnover of around US$100 million, which for Avangard is a big jump from where it was previously. Given the size of the contracts we have, the US$10 million guarantee we gave Acma is conservative and on the low side."

Last month, Acma said it was buying a 30 per cent stake in AVG, a private engineering and construction company whose chairman, Igor Putin, is the first cousin of Russian President Vladimir Putin.