Report: China fund eyes stake in Facebook

China's sovereign wealth fund is reportedly looking to buy a stake in Facebook.

Business Insider, citing a source at a fund that buys stock from former Facebook employees, claimed yesterday that the Chinese buyer hopes to see if it could buy a stake large enough "to matter" of Facebook, the most popular social networking website in the world with 700 million users.

Citibank is trying to acquire as much as US$1.2 billion worth of Facebook stock on behalf of two sovereign wealth funds - China's and another from the Middle East.

China Investment Corp, the nation's sovereign fund, was not available for comments.

Thanks to its huge user base and clear business model through online advertising and promotion income, Facebook is now one of the most mentioned investment target in the industry.

The US-based website is widely expected to be listed in a year or two.

Though Facebook is not available on the Chinese mainland, its founder and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg is keen on the market - the world's biggest - with more than 400 million Internet users.

Zuckberg will probably visit Shanghai in September, which will be his second trip to China. In 2010, the 27-year-old Facebook CEO met with leaders of the top Internet companies in China, including Baidu, Sina, Alibaba and Tencent.

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