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Since sovereign fund China Investment Corp. (CIC) made its first investment into private equity fund manager Blackstone in 2007, Chinese companies have turned from stake vendors into aggressive global bidders.
China Development Bank (CDB) reportedly injected pound(s)1.5 billion (US$2.99 billion) into UK-based Barclays. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) completed the US$5.46 billion acquisition of a 20% stake in South Africa based Standard Bank. And recently, China Merchants Bank won the bid for a 53.12% stake in Hong Kong based Wing Lung Bank for US$4.66 billion.
In other sectors, Sinosteel proposed a A$1.2 billion (US$1.16 billion) takeover of Australian-listed miner Midwest. Chinalco launched a stake-purchasing blitz on Australian iron ore miner Rio Tinto. And Cosco Pacific won the bidding for the biggest port in Greece, the Piraeus Port Authority.
Now whenever a significant target is up for sale, one of the first steps taken by advisers is to gauge the interest of Chinese firms. They are being viewed as potential saviours of US banks wounded by the sub-prime crisis and as white knights for Australian mining businesses fending off takeover bids from rivals.
But is there likely to be a legion of Chinese companies buying...