French state-owned bank Caisse des depots and China Development Bank said on September 06 they have created a 150-million-euro ($189-million) fund to take minority stakes in French and Chinese small- and medium-sized firms.
"The Chinese have agreed to take equal stake in a fund under the French law and denominated in euros," Jean-Pierre Jouyet, Caisse des depots chairman, in an interview with Les Echos newspaper.
The fund would "take minority interests half in French SMEs that are developing their Chinese market and the other half in Chinese SME that are development in France," he added, calling the partnership "highly symbolic". Zhang Xuguang, chairman of the China Development Bank Capital, meanwhile stressed that the bank is "confident about the growth potential of French companies despite the economic context".
"French and Chinese companies are very complementary and investing in this complementarity is a winning strategy for us," he added. The fund would invest between 3 and 15 million euros in each company with sales of 10 to 200 million euros.