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(HERALD) China to launch state investment agency

China to launch state investment agency
AFP.

SHANGHAI. China is expected to formally launch a long-awaited state investment agency to manage part of its massive foreign exchange reserves this week, state press reported yesterday. The management team of the new investment company will include Lou Jiwei, a former vice finance minister, the China Securities Journal reported, citing unnamed sources.

It will also include several officials from the finance ministry, the national social security fund, and Central Huijin Investment Co, an investment arm of the central bank, as well as Goldman Sachs Asia’s managing director Fred Hu, the report said.

China’'s forex reserves, the world’s largest, surpassed US$1,33 trillion at the end of June, with about 70 percent generally believed to be held in US dollar denominated paper, principally US government bonds. China’s finance ministry sold 600 billion yuan (US$79,4 billion) worth of government bonds in August in the first batch of a 1,55 trillion yuan planned special issue to fund the state investment agency.

The new agency, tasked with diversifying and maximising returns on part of the country’s huge forex reserves, has already invested US3 billion of foreign exchange reserves in US private equity group Blackstone in May despite not yet being formally launched. — AFP.

Labels: CHINA, INVESTMENT, THE HERALD

posted by MrK @ 3:19 AM