China's 200-billion-dollar sovereign wealth fund said Wednesday it had acquired part of a Kazakh oil and gas producer for nearly one billion dollars, marking its latest investment in natural resources.
China Investment Corp (CIC) has bought around 11 percent of the Global Depositary Receipts of JSC KazMunaiGas Exploration Production for 939 million dollars, CIC said in a statement on its website.
The deal was done through the fund's wholly owned subsidiary Fullbloom Investment Corporation, the statement said.
JSC KazMunaiGas Exploration Production is among the top three oil and gas producers in Kazakhstan. Its total crude production in 2008 was 11.95 million tonnes, according to the Astana-based company's website.
CIC was set up in 2007 to help China find more lucrative ways to invest its massive foreign exchange reserves, which stood at 2.13 trillion dollars at the end of June and are parked mainly in low-yielding instruments such as US Treasury bonds.
The company is shifting its focus to raw materials after investments in Western financial institutions including Morgan Stanley booked huge unrealised losses during the financial crisis.
In the past three months alone, CIC has invested more than four billion dollars in companies in Canada, Indonesia and Hong Kong with interests in coal, copper and iron ore.
The company's total assets stood at 297.5 billion dollars at the end of 2008.
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