China wealth fund plans to buy Australia office blocks

Sydney

SOVEREIGN fund China Investment Corp (CIC) plans to buy Australia's biggest office block portfolio from Morgan Stanley for US$1.82 billion, highlighting Beijing's appetite for stable assets offshore as the mainland economy sputters.

The US$200 billion CIC made its biggest Australian investment just as Sydney's commercial property market braces for a glut of new office space, despite little apparent appetite from tenants to expand their footprints in the country's main business hub.