By Lewis Jackson
SYDNEY (Reuters) -Australia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Future Fund, is screening its portfolio for Chinese companies at risk of U.S. investment restrictions, its chairman said on Tuesday.
The Biden administration plans to ban investments in some Chinese technology firms and increase scrutiny of others, sources have said, as part of its plan to crack down on the billions that American firms have poured into sensitive Chinese sectors.
Peter Costello cited the experience of Western investments in Russia that were written to zero after waves of sanctions effectively shut foreign investors out of the country.
“Is it foreseeable that something similar could happen in China? I think it’s foreseeable,” Costello said during a panel discussion at the Australian Financial Review summit in Sydney on Tuesday.
“And so we’ve gone through very, very carefully as many companies as we can to try and drop stocks. Have we found every company? No, because you don’t know of a lot of these Chinese companies.”
Costello, who served as Treasurer in the Howard government from 1996 to 2007, cited a hypothetical scenario where Chinese-made drones are found in Ukraine and the manufacturers are hit with U.S. investment bans in response.
The A$243 billion ($164 billion) fund was established in 2006 to cover escalating pension liabilities for public servants and rivals Australia’s largest pension funds in size.
“I just think it’s a prudent measure in this bifurcated world we’re going into,” said Costello.
($1 = 1.4859 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Lewis Jackson; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
