China pension fund eyes stake in China Devt Bank

TIANJIN, China, Sept 28 (Reuters) - China's national pension fund intends to become a strategic shareholder in China Development Bank, the state-owned infrastructure lender, and to invest in energy projects, its chairman said on Sunday.

China Development Bank, which lends explicitly in support of government policies, is in the midst of a restructuring along commercial lines and is eventually aiming for a stock market listing.

The government last week shifted the chairman of Bank of Communications (3328.HK) (601328.SS) to China Development Bank to speed up its overhaul.

"I will make a strategic investment in China Development Bank and in future we will also invest in the energy sector," Dai Xianglong, chairman of the National Social Security Fund (NSSF), told reporters.

Dai, speaking on the sidelines of a meeting of the World Economic Forum in this northern port city, gave no timetable.

Dai, a former mayor of Tianjin and ex-head of the central bank, said the NSSF was actively seeking opportunities to invest in private equity funds.

The NSSF won approval earlier this year to put 10 percent of its total assets into private equity firms. So far it has given two such funds 2 billion yuan each.

"Private equity funds can support the listing of good enterprises and help them achieve better earnings, which will be helpful to the development of the stock market," he said.

Dai said the assets of his pension fund, when added to Chinese insurers' premium income and annuities, would exceed 7 trillion yuan ($1 trillion) by the end of 2010, a big chunk of which would be invested in the stock market.

"That will be very good for the stability of the stock market," he said. ($1=6.843 Yuan) (Reporting by Langi Chiang; Editing by Alan Wheatley)