Chinese State-Controlled Funds and Entities in Canada

In July 2009, Teck Resources Limited, Canada’s largest mining company, approved the purchase by China Investment Corporation (CIC) of 101.3 million Class B subordinate voting shares of Teck through a wholly owned subsidiary. The CIC would indirectly hold approximately 17.5 percent of Teck’s outstanding Class B subordinate voting shares, representing 17.2 percent equity and 6.7 percent voting interests in Teck (Bouw, 2010). By the end of 2009, CIC’s stake in Teck was worth US$3.5 billion, making Teck its largest single equity holding (Perkins, 2010). At about the same time, in December 2009, Canada and China signed a deal for PetroChina to invest US$1.7 billion in two Canadian tar-sand deposits in Alberta (Polzcer, 2009). If successfully implemented, these two deals will become the largest acquisitions so far by China’s State-Controlled Funds and Entities (SCFEs) in North America.