China's $300-billion sovereign wealth fund, China Investment Corp (CIC), has bought a 15-per cent stake worth $850 million in privagtely-held triple-A rated global commodity supplier, Noble Group Ltd, based  in Hong Kong.

Singapore-listed Noble Group will sell $850 million worth of new and existing shares to CIC at a discount of 8.1 per cent than the last traded price. The sale includes 135 million shares owned by Nobel founder and CEO Richard Elman and 438 million new shares, the company said in a statement.

Noble said it has agreed to sell 573 million shares at  $1.49 (S$2.11 each) to CIC and expects to gain $642.2 million from the share sale and plans to use the proceeds to pursue strategic investments in key agricultural markets globally.

CIC and Noble have agreed to enter into this partnership for the purpose of jointly investing in infrastructure assets and supply chain management related to agricultural commodities.

Elman said, ''We are all extremely pleased with the investment by CIC in Noble and heartened that they, like us, evaluate the evolution and success of a company over decades as opposed to merely fiscal quarters. We think the opportunities to work together over the coming decades will be tremendous and we look forward to working together.''

With 2008 annual revenues exceeding $36 billion, Nobel, a Fortune 500 company, is a market leader in managing the global supply chain of agricultural, industrial and energy products.