By Esther Fung
SHANGHAI--China's sovereign-wealth fund China Investment Corp.
is purchasing a portfolio of nine office towers in Sydney and
Melbourne from a real estate unit of Morgan Stanley (MS),
continuing its overseas acquisitions to diversify its massive
foreign-exchange holdings.
CIC International Co., a unit of the state-owned fund, has
exchanged contracts with Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing to
purchase the office towers, eight in Sydney's central business
district, and the remaining one in Melbourne, the U.S. investment
bank said in a statement. The deal is subject to regulatory
approvals, including from the Australian Foreign Investment Review
Board.
The Australian Financial Review reported that CIC had put in a
A$2.45 billion ($1.79 billion) bid for the portfolio, which is
managed by Investa Property Trust.
Earlier this month, CIC together with affiliate AEW Europe
bought eight shopping centers in France and two malls in Belgium
for about EUR1.3 billion ($1.44 billion) from CBRE Global
Investors.
Write to Esther Fung at esther.fung@wsj.com
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