China's Social Security Fund has decided to invest 3 billion yuan ($450.6 million) in private equity company Hony Capital Ltd's RMB fund, the fund's top official said Tuesday.1 ^+ ]2 U& K, K7 {* ^
"We think Hony Capital has a good management team and sound projects which have been listed or will be listed this year, so that's why we decided to continue our investment with them," said Dai Xianglong, chairman of the National Council for the Social Security Fund at Tuesday's International Financial Forum 2010.+ [( c, D* c- k+ W' \. M P! P) j
The Social Security Fund, which reported total assets of 776.62 billion yuan ($116.64 billion) in 2009, could invest up to 10 percent of its total assets on private equity and venture capital projects via private equity firms.
* l8 E$ e* V% z0 W( c8 H, H5 ? This is the second time that Hony Capital, the investment arm of technology conglomerate Legend Holdings, has helped the fund invest.
! x" B! z6 Q6 n' y: X' T! J The national social security fund, which was set up in 2000, is part of the country's social security system, financed mainly by central government fiscal allocations, lottery revenues, and equity dividends from State-owned enterprises.) ?: D, `0 O. a
It aims to serve as an extra source of funding in case the nation's basic social security fund — currently run and managed by local governments — fails to match the huge pension demands of an increasingly aging population in the future.
1 X6 v" z/ a& O- J n m& @ The current pension deficit is estimated to be about 1.3 trillion yuan ($195.25 billion) nationwide, according to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. People above 60 years of age will account for 12.5 percent of the total population by 2010, but that figure is expected to hit 31 percent by 2050, according to the fund in July. |