Blackstone Group's uninspired performance in the aftermarket has left some officials of the China Investment Corp. a little disappointed. But it will likely do nothing to stem what appears to be a flood of investments in U.S. private equity firms. According to the Financial Times, China's Social Security Fund, with $61.5 billion in assets, has held talks with at the least three big name firms, Carlyle Group, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and TPG. The negotiations in one case was for 10 percent stake. There's a lot of sovereign wealth that has to be invested, and private equity returns are about as high as you're going to get (using, ahem, history as a guide). This is another instance of globalization. We'll see more financial deals in general that will go beyond the Citic-Bear Stearns cross investment.

For more:
- here's the Financial Times article

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