UNFAZED by Italy’s gloomier economic outlook, China’s cash-rich central bank is snapping up stakes in high-profile Italian companies and has invested around 3 billion euros (US$4.02 billion) in blue-chip firms as it seeks to diversify beyond government debt.

    Filings from stock market watchdog Consob showed that the People’s Bank of China now owns 2.014 percent of Generali, Italy’s biggest insurer and Europe’s third-largest sector player by market capitalization. The stake is worth 471 million euros at current market prices.

    The purchase comes in spite of quarterly economic data that showed Italy had slipped back into a recession and that sparked a sell-off in stocks and bonds earlier last week.

    The People’s Bank of China has also acquired stakes of around 2 percent in Italy’s biggest carmaker Fiat, top domestic telecom operator Telecom Italia and Prysmian, the world’s biggest cable maker.

    In March, the People’s Bank of China also bought similar stakes in leading oil and gas operator Eni — an investment worth 1.3 billion euros — and domestic utility giant Enel.

    “Rather than sticking to low-yielding Italian government bonds, the Chinese are looking to diversify their investments, with a focus on high-profile companies with global footprint,” said Marco Valli, chief eurozone economist at UniCredit.

    Contrary to other Asian central banks, the People Bank’s of China had continued to invest in Italian state debt — albeit at shorter maturities — even at the peak of the eurozone crisis. But a fall in Italian government bond yields to record lows earlier this year has made these assets less attractive.

    Italian companies have been the target of 35 deals or acquisitions since 2009, nearly 10 percent of all Chinese transactions with European companies over the past five years, according to Rothschild data.

    These purchases, which involve a number of Chinese players, have increasingly grown in size and importance.

    In one of the biggest deals this year, Italy’s state lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti last month agreed to sell a 35 percent of energy grid holding firm to State Grid. (SD-Agencies)