Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Bank of China Buys into Britain's Largest Coal-Fired Power Plant Owner

We almost nailed it:
I would not be surprised to wake up one day to find that China Investment Corp. had made a bid for BTU.
Just substitute the People's Bank of China for CIC, move down the value chain from a coal-producer to a coal-burner, instead of U.S. based, insert British....hmmm, actually not that close at all. Maybe next time, the Chinese really, really want coal based assets.
From The Telegraph:

People's Bank of China powers into Britain

China's central bank has acquired a secret stake in Drax, the owner of the UK's biggest coal-fired power station.

The People's Bank of China is understood to have been building its stake in Drax for about a year and now owns just over 0.7pc of the company.

The stakebuilding provides a further illustration of the extent to which the Chinese government is deploying its vast foreign exchange holdings in overseas markets as it seeks greater returns than those yielded by its holdings of US treasury bills....MORE