China's wealth fund to mull investing in Europe

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-04-19 14:05

China's $200 billion sovereign fund will consider investing in Europe in 2009, after avoiding the continent last year because of trade barriers, said China Investment Corp.'s Chairman Lou Jiwei.

"Europe has started to welcome investments" without attaching conditions, Lou said Saturday at the Boao Forum in southern China's Hainan province.

"During the world financial crisis, sovereign wealth funds have become more appealing" and less frightening, he said.

Beijing-based CIC, whose investments have included stakes in Blackstone Group LP and Morgan Stanley, didn't invest "a single cent" in European companies or assets last year, because the continent had put up barriers to limit the activities of sovereign wealth funds, he said.

The agency was founded to provide better returns for China's foreign-currency reserves, the world's largest at $1.95 trillion. The fund last year earned $10 billion from its investments, representing a 5 percent return, Radio Television Hong Kong reported on February 24, citing a source it didn't identify.

"There was rising protectionism against China last year, and the European Union had the worst" limits, Lou said. "They allowed us to invest in no more than 10 percent of a company's stakes and required us to give up our voting power" in management, he said.

"We couldn't accept that because investments should be based on market practices," he said. "With the removal of these conditions, we will seriously consider making decisive and prudent investments overseas this year, including in Europe."

He declined to specify the European industries or companies he's looking at investing in.