China Investment Corp acquires $1.75bn CCB stake

China’s sovereign fund now has 60.46% stake in the lender, up from 59.31%.

China Investment Corp., the country’s sovereign wealth fund, bought $1.75 billion of shares in China Construction Bank Corp., increasing state control of the second-largest Chinese lender by market capitalization.

CIC bought 2.76 billion shares at an average price of $0.634 off the exchange on Nov. 14, according to a disclosure filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange Friday that didn’t name the sellers. That brought CIC’s stake to 60.46 percent from 59.31 percent.

Bank of America Corp. (BAC), the second-biggest U.S. lender by assets, said this week it plans to bolster capital by selling 10.4 billion shares of Construction Bank this month in private transactions for a profit of about $1.8 billion, leaving it with a 1 percent stake.

Foreign investors including Bank of America, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc have trimmed more than $25 billion of holdings in Chinese lenders since the beginning of 2009, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

View the full story in Bloomberg.