China sovereign wealth fund buys Heathrow stake

BEIJING - The China Investment Corporation, China's sovereign wealth fund, announced Thursday that its subsidiary will purchase a 10-percent stake in Heathrow Airport Holdings.

The British company, previously known as the BAA Ltd, manages London's Heathrow International Airport and other British air hubs.

The deal marks CIC's second investment in British infrastructure, as the company also holds an 8.68-percent stake in Thames Water, the largest water supply and waste water treatment company in the UK.

CIC posted a one-sentence statement on its website about the deal without providing any financial details.

The sovereign wealth fund was founded in September 2007 with a registered capital of $200 billion amid hopes of making better use of China's huge foreign exchange reserves.

According to the company's 2011 business report, its total assets stood at $482 billion at the end of that year. Thirty-one percent of its overseas investment portfolio was in long-term investments; 25 percent in diversified public equities; 21 percent in fixed-income securities; 12 percent in absolute return investments; and 11 percent in cash funds and other types of investments.