China fund buys nearly one percent of BP

China has accumulated a stake of just under 1 percent in BP Plc, raising fresh questions about Beijing's strategy for investing its huge foreign currency reserves. A spokesman for BP, Britain's largest company, said it was aware of the Chinese stake, which is worth about $2 billion, and that it welcomed all shareholders.
He declined to name the identity of the investor but The Daily Telegraph said it was the same Chinese state fund that had built up a stake in French oil giant Total. That fund is the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), an arm of the central bank that manages China's $1.68 trillion in currency reserves, the Financial Times reported last week. It said SAFE's stake in Total of 1.6 percent was worth about $2.8 billion.