Is $2 billion a magic number?

US$2 billion seems to be a recurring theme for today’s news briefs. Coca-Cola is injecting US$2 billion into its operations in China to expand its plants and distribution network in the country as well as to develop new products. The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and China Construction Bank (CCB) are investing US$2 billion too. The banks are investing in bad debt managers — China Huarong Asset Management in the case of ICBC and China Cinda Asset Management for CCB — in return for 49% stakes in the companies. The debt managers are getting into securities brokering, trusts and insurance. Bank of China (BOC) got some good investment news as well. Temasek, the investment arm of the Singaporean government, said it will hold onto its BOC stake through at least the first half of 2009. That is good news to BOC after UBS and Royal Bank of Scotland sold their stakes in BOC in December and January respectively.