china's smiling face = no need for rdi float

The proposed RDI float could be permanently dead in the water now, but pave the way for direct investment instead.
They have the capital and we need the bucks.

Interesting to see if there has been any change in the good Professor's relationship with the Chinese.

Article from todays KGB blurb


China appears to be embarking upon the greatest bottom-fishing exercise in history.

Not only is it buying up Australian mining companies at bargain prices and bidding up the prices of metals directly to stockpile them as an alternative investment to US treasuries (Australia’s pole position, 16 April), it is now preparing to move on Europe.

This morning, Fairfax’s John Garnaut reports that Andrew Forrest of Fortescue Metals had dinner on Friday night with the head of China’s sovereign wealth fund, the $200 billion China Investment Corporation, Lou Jiwei.

They are said to be talking about a “mammoth” mine expansion structured to get around FIRB problems, even though Forrest has already done a deal with Hunan Valin Steel for a $1.2 billion investment in Fortescue.

Meanwhile, Lou Jiwei last week told a meeting of visiting business leaders in China that CIC was now being welcomed by European countries, instead of being resisted as it was last year.

CIC has lost a fortune on investments in Morgan Stanley and the private equity firm, Blackstone Group, that it picked up in 2007, but it never ventured into Europe, which turned out to be a very good thing.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Lou Jiwei told the last week’s meeting that European officials had demanded that CIC keep its stakes to less than 10 per cent, with no voting rights. “I said I can't accept this. They said Europe doesn't welcome me, so I said fine, if Europe doesn't want me, I won't go. So I want to thank these financial protectionists, because as a result, we didn't invest a single cent in Europe."

China is over-invested in the United States and under-invested in Europe and Australia, and appears to be intent on correcting this imbalance. And now no one is resisting China’s money.

As Lou Jiwei said last week: “People suddenly look at us as a loveable force.”