0

China ramps up foreign investing

Chinese and American flags wave side by side outside Goldman Sachs headquarters in New York

To view this content, Javascript must be enabled and Adobe Flash Player must be installed.

Get Adobe Flash player

TEXT OF STORY

Steve Chiotakis: China is picking up the pace of its dealmaking. This week it announced plans to boost overseas bets by ten times. And a good chunk of it could be coming to the United States. From Shanghai, here's Marketplace's Scott Tong.


Scott Tong: China's sovereign wealth fund wants to spread up to $50 billion around the world this year. It's hiring Wall Street pros to help it out. The fund has given Morgan Stanley and Blackstone $10 billion to invest.

Michael McCormack: In the same way that they might hire Fidelity or T. Rowe Price to manage U.S. equities for them.

That's Michael McCormack of the Shanghai research firm Z-Ben Advisors. Rumor has it the Chinese wealth fund also fancies U.S. toxic mortgage assets clogging the balance sheets of American banks. And a Hollywood studio.

That may bring to mind Japanese investors snapping up Universal Studios in the 80s. That attracted political hostility in the States; and China's trying to be more discreet.

McCormack: They're going to tread very carefully to make sure that their reputation -- or the reputation of Chinese investors more broadly -- isn't damaged by what they do.

Most expect the Chinese wealth fund to invest indirectly -- for instance through Wall Street firms. And by buying non-controlling stakes in companies it hopes to avoid political heat. McCormack says the fund's mandate is not political: It's purely to make money.

In Shanghai I'm Scott Tong for Marketplace.

About the author

Scott Tong is a correspondent for Marketplace’s sustainability desk, with a focus on energy, environment, resources, climate, supply chain and the global economy. Follow Scott on Twitter @tongscott