CIC overseas investment return above 8%

    CHINA’S sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corp. (CIC) posted overseas investment returns of more than 8 percent last year, its executive vice president Liang Xiang said yesterday.

    “Though there was great volatility in the financial market last year, we adjusted our strategy in time and achieved a quite good result,” Liang said. CIC recorded overseas returns of 10.65 percent in 2012. Founded in 2007, CIC invests part of the country’s foreign exchange reserves abroad.

    HK bourse to offer yuan futures trading

    THE Hong Kong stock exchange, the world’s fourth-largest exchange operator, said Tuesday it would add yuan currency futures to after-hours trading from April 7.

    The bourse introduced after-hours futures trading — from 5 to 11 p.m. — in April last year. Hang Seng Index and H-shares Index futures were the first products that were included. Before the launch of the standardized futures contracts, market players made use of offshore yuan deliverable forward and non-deliverable forward markets to hedge their yuan exposure or speculate on yuan appreciation.

    Baosteel turns to Kyrgyzstan for coal

    CHINA’S Baoshan Iron & Steel (Baosteel) and Minmetals Development are near deals to buy at least half a million tons of coal a year from an Australian firm operating in Kyrgyzstan, sources said.

    Baosteel, China’s largest steel producer, intends to ship its share of the coal to its Bayi Steel works in Xinjiang, a source close to the deal talks said Tuesday. The non-binding agreements are to be signed with Australia-listed Celsius Coal Ltd., which is developing a metallurgical coal mine in Kyrgyzstan that could be in production in two or three years.

    Vanke may list in HK as early as June

    CHINA Vanke Co., one of the nation’s biggest property developers, may list in Hong Kong as soon as June, a source familiar with a situation said Tuesday, joining the migration from the mainland’s illiquid B-share market.

    Shenzhen-listed Vanke, whose capitalization on the B-share market is HK$84 billion (US$10.81 billion), will be listed “by introduction,” the source said, meaning it won’t issue new shares or raise new funds. Vanke said Tuesday that the China Securities Regulatory Commission had approved the conversion of its Shenzhen-listed B shares to Hong Kong-listed H shares.