DUBAI, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Russia's Troika Dialog investment house said on Monday it planned to set up a special "distressed" asset fund to invest in Russian debt markets and help finance corporate share buybacks.
CEO Ruben Vardanyan told reporters at a Russian investment roadshow in Dubai that the fund would be launched by the end of the year, but declined to say how much it would be worth or which sectors it could target.
"In the short term there will be more of a corporate financing role than public trading," he said, adding that he saw opportunities in bank mergers and acquisitions, private placements, distressed debt and buybacks.
"(We see our role) in helping companies with the new reality," he said.
Troika, one of the oldest and largest homegrown investment banks in the former Soviet Union, denied in September that it would be taken over by a state savings bank after the stock market fell sharply.

(Reporting by John Irish, writing by Lin Noueihed, editing by Will Waterman) Keywords: TROIKA FUND (lin.noueihed@thomsonreuters.com, +971 4 391 8301, lin.noueihed.reuters.com@reuters.net)

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