China Investment Corporation (CIC), the Chinese sovereign wealth fund, is near a deal with private equity group JC Flowers to put about $4 billion into a new fund to invest in ailing financial institutions, the Financial Times reported.
It follows major transactions in which sovereign wealth funds from Asia and the Middle East invested directly in beleaguered banks such as UBS, Merrill Lynch , Citigroup and Morgan Stanley .
The CIC would be also less vulnerable to domestic criticism if itsinvestments went sour, according to the paper.