Itochu, CP Group to jointly invest US$10b in China's Citic

Tokyo

JAPANESE trading house Itochu Corp and Thailand's Charoen Pokphand Group (CP) said on Tuesday that they plan to jointly invest US$10 billion in Citic Group, China's oldest and biggest conglomerate.

Itochu and CP Group plan to contribute evenly to the investment, taking a joint stake of as much as 20 per cent, as both seek to raise their exposure to the world's second-biggest economy even as it slows from the blistering growth of the past decade.

The deal comes as Citic has been broadening its investor base as part of Chinese President Xi Jinping's reforms of state-owned enterprises. Citic completed a restructuring in August by injecting about US$36 billio…