China’s US$1.35 trillion sovereign wealth fund CIC invests in Middle East via US$1 billion fund with Investcorp
- The Golden Horizon Fund marks the first time that CIC, one of the world’s largest sovereign investors, has invested in the Middle East
- Fund will target companies across the Gulf Cooperation Council countries and China
China’s sovereign wealth fund has established a US$1 billion fund with the Middle East region’s biggest alternative asset manager to invest in companies among the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and China, putting investment dollars behind warming relations between the two regions.
The Golden Horizon Fund, launched with Bahrain-based Investcorp Holdings, marks the first time that China Investment Corp (CIC), which has assets of US$1.35 trillion, has invested in the Middle East.
Qi Bin, executive vice-president and deputy chief investment officer with CIC, said that the partnership will strengthen economic relationships between China and the GCC countries.
“As one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, CIC has been actively investing in both developed and emerging economies,” Qi said in the statement released on Wednesday. “During the past couple of years, we have built several bilateral funds with leading financial institutions to facilitate industrial cooperation between China and major economies in the world.”
“Currently we are working closely with Investcorp to build a similar bilateral fund to strengthen financial and industrial ties between China and GCC countries.”
The announcement of the fund’s launch took place at Investcorp’s China-GCC Investment and Business Cooperation Summit in Riyadh. The event featured prominent speakers including Qi, and Ibrahim Al-Mubarak, Saudi Arabia’s assistant minister of investment, and representatives of CIC’s global private-equity partners Goldman Sachs and HSBC, as well as other industry experts.
