Sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corporation may join Blackstone (BX.NYSE) to buy stake in a portfolio of distressed property loans from the ailing Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS.LSE), the Wall Street Journal reported, quoting people familiar with the matter. RBS agreed three months ago to sell Blackstone a 25% stake in a property-loan portfolio valued at US$2.2 billion; Blackstone intends to manage the portfolio, while RBS will retain ownership of the remaining stake. CIC has taken advantage of depressed property values in the US and UK to steadily increase its exposure to the overseas property market in the last few years. The strategy helped the fund to generate an 11.7% return on its portfolio last year, bringing its assets to US$409.6 billion. Earlier this year, CIC and Blackstone teamed up to purchase a Japanese property-loan portfolio valued at US$1.1 billion from real-estate funds managed by Morgan Stanley (MS.NYSE); the pair paid 35 cents on the dollar for the stake.