BEIJING, May 21 (UPI) -- China, seeking new opportunities for its huge foreign exchange reserves, plans to invest $3 billion in the private U.S. equity firm Blackstone Group LP.
The investment will give a soon-to-be formed state-owned foreign exchange investment company a nearly 10 percent non-voting stake in the New York Company.
The official Xinhua news agency quoted Wang Jianxi, chairman of the state-owned China Jianyin Investment Limited, as saying the deal will be done by the new company, into which his company will merge.
A joint statement said the deal will close concurrently with Blackstone's $4 billion initial public offering set for next month.
The report said the Chinese investment company will buy the shares at 95.5 percent of the IPO price and hold them for at least four years.
China's foreign exchange reserves, driven by rising export revenues, currently total $1.2 trillion, the highest in the world.
