China yesterday launched a long-anticipated state-owned investment company that is intended to manage around US$200 billion, or nearly one-sixth of China's massive foreign exchange reserves.
The China Investment Corp (
"The company will operate based on the principle of separating management and government," the statement issued at the grand opening in Beijing's recently erected New Poly Plaza said.
"The company will function independently and based on commercial principles," it said.
The statement seemed to be aimed at concerns, voiced overseas, about the exact nature of the new organization, and whether, for example, it would be used to help satisfy the nation's enormous thirst for energy and natural resources.
"The company will contribute funds. It's not a bad thing," said Zhang Taowei, a finance professor at Beijing's Tsinghua University. "If the Americans are concerned about this, it's because they're still stuck in Cold War thinking."
The company, which will be in charge of the largest fund of its kind anywhere in the world, emerges at a time when China, long a magnet for foreign investment, is surfacing as a major source of capital in its own right.
China's reserves, the world's largest, surpassed US$1.33 trillion at the end of June, boosted by the nation's ballooning trade deficit.
About 70 percent has generally been believed to be held in US dollar denominated paper, principally US government bonds.
This has proved a less-than-ideal solution, given not just the low yields on government debt, but also the weakening of the US currency.
The company will try to maximize the proceeds via long-term investments "within a range of acceptable risks," unnamed sources quoted by state-run Xinhua news agency said.
He Fan (何帆), an economist at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a Beijing-based government think tank, confirmed the company would mark a departure from the past investment focus on US Treasury bills.
"It will be very different with the state investment company. There may be equity investment, government bonds of other countries, strategic commodities and technologies," he told reporters.
Even before its official launch, the company created headlines across the globe in May by investing US$3 billion in US private equity group Blackstone.
However, analysts said high-profile acquisitions of this type will not constitute the majority of the new company's business.
"Compared with the past, the investment will be longer-term and the scope wider," He said. "But investment in private equity firms like Blackstone, which involves higher risks, is unlikely to account for a large proportion in its portfolio."
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
BIG BUCKS: Chairman Wei is expected to receive NT$34.12 million on a proposed NT$5 cash dividend plan, while the National Development Fund would get NT$8.27 billion Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday announced that its board of directors approved US$15.25 billion in capital appropriations for long-term expansion to meet growing demand. The funds are to be used for installing advanced technology and packaging capacity, expanding mature and specialty technology, and constructing fabs with facility systems, TSMC said in a statement. The board also approved a proposal to distribute a NT$5 cash dividend per share, based on first-quarter earnings per share of NT$13.94, it said. That surpasses the NT$4.50 dividend for the fourth quarter of last year. TSMC has said that while it is eager
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
RSS