The Qatar Investment Authority, the Gulf nation’s US$58 billion sovereign wealth fund, has agreed to invest US$2.8 billion in Agricultural Bank of China’s initial public offering, Bloomberg reported. Agricultural Bank is seeking to raise as much as US$15 billion in the Hong Kong part of what may be the world’s largest IPO. It has allocated more than US$5 billion for corporate investors such as QIA. The Qatar fund owns stakes in financial institutions including Credit Suisse Group AG (CS.NYSE, CSGN.SIX) and Barclays Plc (BCS.NYSE, BARC.LSE). Investing in China is part of QIA’s diversification strategy, said Giyas Gokkent, chief economist at the National Bank of Abu Dhabi PJSC. Agricultural Bank – China’s largest lender by number of customers – may sell as much as US$28 billion of stock in Hong Kong and Shanghai combined, surpassing the US$22 billion sale by Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (601398.SH, 1398.HK) in 2006.
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