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.