CIC may fund Fortescue expansion

Executives from Hunan Valin Iron & Steel said sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corp (CIC) would help to fund an expansion by Australian miner Fortescue Metals Group through a debt investment, the Wall Street Journal reported. Hunan Valin signed an agreement on Friday to become Fortescue’s second-largest shareholder, buying a stake of just over 17% for US$922 million. CIC may provide a debt investment such as a convertible bond purchase to increase Fortescue’s annual capacity to 90 million tons from 50 million tons. A separate China-Australia commodities deal, the US$19.5 billion investment in Rio Tinto by Aluminum Corp of China encountered further opposition on the weekend as Australian politicians launched an advertising campaign calling on the Australian government to block the deal.