China Targets Australia’s Assets

photo by Robert Rough, Brisbane Times

A $1.5 billion bid for Australia’s main sugar refiner, CSR, by one of the world’s biggest food companies is a precursor to the next wave of Chinese investment in Australian assets, reports the Brisbane Times.

But the bid by Bright Foods, owned by the Shanghai municipal government, will pose a political and regulatory challenge to the Federal Government.

Media reports suggest the Government is exploring how to make its foreign investment regime less burdensome for Chinese state-owned companies, while preserving screening rights on genuinely strategic investments.

Advisers and executives say property, financial and other services, rare earths and other metals for electronics processing, and the giant natural gas fields off north-western Australia are likely to be targets for the rivers of Chinese cash that began flowing into Australian mining assets two years ago and which are now spilling into the wider economy.

The aggressive investment strategy is backed by Beijing. Last month the Central Economics Work Conference encouraged companies to ”go out” and invest overseas.

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