Business News China's CIC to buy U.S. mortgages: sources 03:59 AM EDT By George Chen, Asia Private Equity Correspondent HONG KONG (Reuters) - China Investment Corp (CIC), the country's $200 billion sovereign wealth fund, is set to pour up to $2 billion soon into the U.S. mortgage system by hiring mandates under the U.S. Treasury-backed Public-Private Investment Plan (PPIP), sources told Reuters. Under the PPIP program launched earlier this year the U.S. government plans to seed a number of public-private investment funds that would combine taxpayer money with private capital to buy as much as $40 billion in toxic securities from banks. The move came after the United States and China in late July ended their first annual "Strategic and Economic Dialogue" where they agreed to lead the global economy out of recession and China expressed hopes for safer investments in the world's biggest economy. "The Chinese government is always trying to seek a more ideal way to invest in U.S. assets rather than purely buying U.S. government bonds all the time," said one of the sources. "Some might think $2 billion for a $200 billion sovereign fund is not big money, but it can be regarded as an innovative and positive option for Chinese investment," said the source. The firms in talks with CIC are designated PPIP managers and include Alliance Bernstein LP, with sub-advisers Greenfield Partners LLC and Rialto Capital Management LLC; Angelo Gordon and Co LP with GE Capital Real Estate; BlackRock Inc; Invesco Ltd; Marathon Asset Management LP; Oaktree Capital Management LP; RLJ Western Asset Management LP; Trust Company of the West; and Wellington Management Co LLP, said the sources. CIC has yet to select any firms as mandates but is expected to make a decision before the end of August, said the sources with direct knowledge of the matter. The sources declined to be identified as the negotiations are private and confidential. CIC declined to comment. CIC, established by the Communist government in late 2007, is keen to participate in the PPIP as it expects the U.S. property market to start to recover gradually late this year, said the sources.
It's been a while since this program was first brought up. But, if I recall correctly, there is very little risk for the outside investor. The gov't/taxpayer is the one who is truly on the hook when the SHTF. This seems to be just another way to get money from the Chinese. The gov't knows these assets have little or no value. The clock is ticking, and they need as much outside investment as possible, before the entire house of cards comes crashing down.
Maybe they'll be like Vito. He doesn't let you foreclose otherwise you end up with a few broken bones.
This is very good news for the US economy. If we can get consumer finance restarted, we will quickly see a resumption of rising household wealth. Last week, China announced that they are looking for diversified investments for their banks outside of the Chinese equity markets. This is the first step in the Chinese resuming their financing of the US economy. The meltdown for the last 2 years is directly related to foreign investors exiting the US consumer finance market. Since then, the fed has been propping up the US banking system, but hasn't been helping the consumer finance markets. With China making the first step, testing the waters, other countries are sure to follow.
It seems that Geithner has addressed the seriousness of the situation to the Chinese. Export oriented, trade surplus countries like China should have a vast interest in the comeback of the US consumer. Stimulating the Chinese consumer might be a hopeless undertaking. Hedonism oriented economies like the US are much easier to "manipulate" back to decade long consumption behavior...
Higher consumer debt doesn't translate into higher household networth. Consumers are finding out this simple truth the hard way now.