China's SWF to Pump $1.23 Billion Into Penn West

Penn West is selling 45% of oil-sands properties to the $289 billion China Investment Corp.

(May 13, 2010) — State-owned China Investment Corp (CIC), the world’s biggest pool of capital, has agreed to invest $1.23 billion in Canadian oil sands giant Penn West.

The deal would give China’s sovereign wealth fund a stake in the world’s largest crude deposits outside Saudi Arabia. It reflects the latest in a string of Canadian companies turning to China, the world’s third largest economy, for funding.

The CIC will pay C$312 million up front and C$505 million of Penn West’s future expenses for a 45% stake in the venture, the Penn West trust said today in a statement. According to the release, Penn West, Canada’s No. 2 energy trust, will contribute C$1.8 billion in assets to the venture, which will develop 237,000 acres of oil- sands properties in the Peace River area of northern Alberta. The Calgary-based trust said the Chinese company’s support will assist in moving the project from the current resource-appraisal phase through to commercial-scale development and production.

The deal is due to close on June 1, subject to regulatory approval.

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Last year, the CIC said it had $110 billion for oversees investments, focusing on commodities companies and property to protect against accelerating inflation, Bloomberg reported.



To contact the <em>aiCIO</em> editor of this story: Paula Vasan at <a href='mailto:pvasan@assetinternational.com'>pvasan@assetinternational.com</a>; 646-308-2742

SEC's New York Chief Targets Institutional Investors; Wall Street Probe Deepens

The head of the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s Manhattan office said the financial crisis has propelled him to scrutinize products normally sold to institutional investors; US regulators have widened their probe into Wall Street banks.

(May 13, 2010) — George Canellos, the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Manhattan office and a former federal prosecutor, said he is urging his staff to scrutinize products traditionally sold to institutional investors, Bloomberg reported.

“The SEC is a little less willing to assume that if the product is sold to institutional investors we should be a little less concerned about it,” Carlos said an interview with Bloomberg Television. According to Canellos, institutional investors purchased products before the financial crisis that eventually became worthless, reflecting that even sophisticated buyers need additional protection. The SEC head is expanding his staff while focusing on structured products and on private exchanges, such as dark pools that trade stocks yet don’t display quote information publicly.

“My highest goal has been to reorient both our examination program and enforcement program toward some areas that have not been the traditional focus,” he said during the interview. “Traditionally, the SEC has placed a great deal of emphasis on retail investors and sales practices directed at retail investors.”

Separately, US prosecutors and the SEC are teaming up with a preliminary criminal probe into whether banks misled investors about their participation in mortgage-bond deals, the Wall Street Journal reported. The SEC has issued subpoenas to JPMorgan Chase & Co., Deutsche Bank AG, UBS AG and Citigroup Inc. Already, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley are under investigation for allegedly misleading investors in collateralized debt obligations deals while betting that the derivatives would fall in value. Additionally, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is probing eight firms over whether they misled rating companies.

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To contact the <em>aiCIO</em> editor of this story: Paula Vasan at <a href='mailto:pvasan@assetinternational.com'>pvasan@assetinternational.com</a>; 646-308-2742

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