China sovereign fund eyes infrastructure, green energy

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-09-09 14:19

HONG KONG: The China Investment Corporation (CIC), the country's $200 billion sovereign wealth fund, is eyeing investment opportunities in infrastructure, green energy and other forms of innovative energy transmission, a senior CIC executive said on Wednesday.

CIC, which lost big on its ill-timed 2007 Morgan Stanley and Blackstone investments, has in recent months diversified its strategy and shifted toward investments in natural resources and other sectors.

The price gap between buyers and sellers is narrowing for infrastructure assets, but assets are still not cheaply priced, Zhou Yuan, CIC's head of special investments department, said at an infrastructure conference in Hong Kong.

Zhou's department oversees direct investments abroad for the fund. He declined to say how much CIC is willing to spend on infrastructure deals.

CIC's role is often misperceived outside of China, Zhou said, adding that the sovereign wealth fund planned to be a "very small player" in global infrastructure, and it sees opportunities in India, Mongolia, and Pakistan.

CIC aims to take minority equity stakes in global infrastructure projects, Zhou told Reuters on the sidelines of the conference.

The fund is focusing on high-yield infrastructure assets, he added.

CIC's $200 billion fund is part of China's roughly $2 trillion of foreign exchange reserves. The fund also plans to invest up to $2 billion in US mortgages as it eyes a property market rebound, two people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters last month.