China's sovereign wealth fund may invest in Europe

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BEIJING, April 20 (AFP): China's sovereign wealth fund is considering investments in Europe, the head of the 200- billion-dollar organisation was quoted as saying in the Financial Times today.
Lou Jiwei, chairman of the China Investment Corporation, said the fund might turn to the continent after initially shunning it because European officials had voiced concerns about its transparency and motives.
During a trip to Beijing in February last year, Peter Mandelson, then the European Union trade commissioner, called for a global code of conduct for sovereign wealth funds.
While the China Investment Corporation has not been a major player in Europe since its establishment in 2007, it has made several high-profile and costly investment decisions in the United States.
Among them was a five billion dollar investment in Wall Street giant Morgan Stanley in December 2007 which saw the fund rack up almost four billion dollars in unrealised losses as the bank was hit by the credit crisis, earlier state media reports said.