Possible Joint Chinese-Goldman Fund for Investment in the U.S.

Goldman Sachs and China’s sovereign wealth fund are to announce a multi-billion-dollar fund to invest in U.S. manufacturing and other sectors, during President Trump’s visit, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday morning, citing “people familiar with the matter.”

The figure of $5 billion is reportedly “targetted” for this co-investment partnership between Goldman and China Investment Corp. (CIC), with the Journal writing that “how much capital Goldman and CIC will each contribute to the fund is still being worked out, one of the people said.” The proposal reportedly was initiated by the CIC as it “casts an eager eye at U.S. high-tech manufacturing, highways, rail lines and other projects,” in order to get beyond its current U.S. investments, largely limited to publicly-traded securities, real estate and private-equity assets.

The fund is expected to be announced when President Trump is in Beijing, one of “a number of agreements U.S. and Chinese businesses are expected to announce on Thursday in a ceremony presided over by Mr. Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People,” the Journal reports.

It mentions planned deals in aviation, LNG, and soybeans as among those on the table, while expressing its disgruntlement at these deals, putting into the mouth of unnamed “US business groups” Wall Street’s concern that China is offering these deals to “deflect” from demands that they open up their economy to foreign interests.