China buys stake in Heathrow operator

on 01/11/2012 08:34:19

The Chinese government's main sovereign wealth fund says it has bought a 10% stake in the operator of London's Heathrow airport, expanding its investments in British infrastructure.

China Investment Corp (CIC) gave no financial details on Thursday but Ferrovial, the Spanish company which owns 49.99% of Heathrow Airport Holdings, said the fund paid other shareholders a total of $725.8m (€559m) to acquire its stake.

CIC was created in 2007 to manage a portion of China's multitrillion-dollar foreign reserves in hopes of earning a higher return.

Its early investments were mostly small stakes in publicly-traded companies to avoid stirring political opposition abroad but the fund has begun making bigger direct investments.