China Investment Corporation (CIC) has acquired an 8.68 per cent stake in Thames Water, the UK water and sewerage company.
The purchase is the Chinese sovereign wealth fund’s first in the UK, and comes after George Osborne's visit to China this week, where he urged China to invest in UK infrastructure projects.
The price CIC paid for the stake has not been disclosed.
CIC was set up in 2007 to make strategic investments using China’s £2 trillion of foreign exchange reserves.
Thames Water itself was acquired by Kemble Water, a consortium of investors led by the Australian bank Macquarie, in 2006. It is the UK's largest water and sewerage company, with a customer base of approximately 14 million, serving households in London, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Gloucestershire, Kent, Oxfordshire, Surrey and Wiltshire.
In December last year, Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, bought 9.9 per cent of Kemble for an undisclosed price.
