The Social Security Fund (SSF) is looking to invest in overseas markets, including private equities, state media reported, citing Dai Xianglong, chairman of the National Social Security Fund Council. "The SSF is keen on expanding its overseas footprint through its investments in stocks, bonds as well as new avenues like private equities," said Dai. China’s largest pension fund can invest as much as 20% of its total assets overseas, but foreign holdings represented a mere 6.54% of assets in 2009. Dai also stated that the fund would act as a purely financial investor and would not seek to make controlling acquisitions. The fund’s investments help diversify China’s foreign exchange holdings of US$2.4 trillion, mitigating some of the risk related to fluctuations in the value of the US dollar. The fund generated a return of 16.1% last year.
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