Canada’s Alberta province calls off partnership with Chinese private equity fund that sought to invest US$10 billion
- The Alberta Industrial Heartland and the Hong Kong-based private equity firm Can-China Global Resource Fund formed their partnership in 2016
- The only known investment by this fund was a US$545.4 million buyout of Calgary-based CQ Energy in 2017
The Alberta government has ended a partnership with a Chinese private equity fund that targeted US$10 billion to invest in the natural resources sector.
The Alberta Industrial Heartland, a not for profit organisation of the province of Alberta in Canada, and the Hong Kong-based private equity firm Can-China Global Resource Fund (CCGRF) had announced their partnership in 2016 to encourage investments across North America.
“This partnership no longer exists,” Karlee Conway, the communications director of the non-profit, said in an email response to Reuters. The spokeswoman did not respond to queries on why the partnership was called off and when.
The lead investor of the fund was China’s Export-Import Bank, Vancouver-based mining firm Hunter Dickinson and Swiss commodity trader Mercuria.
The previously unreported development comes as tension between China and Canada has escalated in recent years, though sources Reuters spoke to could not confirm whether the dissolution of the fund is a direct result of that.
Hong Kong-based MEC Advisory, which was tasked with managing the investments, CCGRF, Mercuria, Hunter Dickinson and Exim Bank did not respond to Reuters’ email request for comment.
