General Electric has subscribed to US$20 million of a real estate fund set up by one of China's major developers, marking the industrial conglomerate's first move into the nation's fast growing real estate market. GE Real Estate, the world's largest publicly traded real estate investor, is one of the overseas investors in a fund jointly established by China Vanke Co and Citic Capital Markets Holdings Ltd, said Tan Huajie, a spokesperson with Vanke yesterday in an e-mail statement. (Shanghai Daily)

China's Ministry of Commerce (MoC) has refused to approve US-based private equity firm Carlyle Group's planned purchase of a majority stake in Xugong Group Construction Machinery Co Ltd. The ministry believed, "a foreign investor should not hold a controlling stake (in Xugong Group)". In October last year, Carlyle Group signed an agreement to pay 375 mln usd for an 85 pct stake in Xugong Group, China's largest construction machinery manufacturer and distributor. (Southern Weekly)

Agile Property Holdings expects to triple sales of its residential projects by 2008 by expanding outside its home market in Guangdong province for the first time since the developer was established in 1997. Company chairman Chen Zhuolin said that steady demand is expected to drive up sales this year by 37.8 pct to 1.3 mln square meters of gross floor area, to be booked this year. (South China Morning Post)