Barriers to Entry
By Rick Carew in Hong Kong, Marcus Walker in Berlin, Chip Cummins in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Katharina Bart in Brussels
Word Count: 972
| Companies Featured in This Article: Citigroup, China Development Bank, Morgan Stanley, Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation, Dubai Ports World, UBS, Barclays, Sony
The powerful government-run investment funds of Asia and the Middle East -- which have been gobbling up global assets recently -- are hitting new resistance.
Some obstacles are political in nature. But others center on bottom-line questions about whether investments like these are solid business moves.
The latest example: China's government has apparently squashed a multibillion-dollar investment in Citigroup Inc. by state-owned China Development Bank. The move suggests there is discord in Beijing over how best to deploy China's money pile. A few previous China investments like these have fared poorly so far financially.
In the West, the newfound assertiveness ...