FACTBOX-China's sovereign wealth fund

BEIJING, Dec 19 (Reuters) - China's sovereign wealth fund, China Investment Corporation (CIC), made its biggest investment to date on Wednesday, taking up to a 9.9 percent stake in Morgan Stanley (MS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) for about $5 billion.

Here are some facts about the fund:

* CIC has total initial capital of $200 billion. The process of injecting this capital has just been completed, the Finance Ministry said on Wednesday.

* CIC's first investment, a nearly 10 percent stake in Blackstone Group (BX.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) that cost $3 billion, has lost more than 30 percent of its value since the private equity giant's IPO in June.

* Its second investment, for about $10 million, was in the Hong Kong IPO of China Railway (601390.SS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz)(0390.HK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

* A British broker, after combing through shareholder registers, said in late July that CIC had also bought a stake in BG Group (BG.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), a British gas company. [ID:nPEK342239]

* Lou Jiwei, head of CIC, said late last month that the fund wanted to play a stabilising role in global markets, just like other sovereign wealth funds that have bought stakes in major financial institutions hit by the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis [ID:nPEK348076].

* Only about one third of CIC's $200 billion capital is available for investment overseas. Another third has been set aside for injecting capital into state banks and the final third has been used to buy Central Huijin, an investment arm of the central bank with stakes in China's biggest commercial banks.

* CIC was set up with a mandate to seek higher returns on part of China's foreign exchange reserves, which totalled $1.455 trillion, the world's largest, at the end of October.

* CIC advertised for external managers last week to run four global equity investment portfolios [ID:nPEK1555521] (Reporting by Simon Rabinovitch; Editing by Alan Wheatley)