Oh, for an investment bank client like China Investment Corp. While other sovereign wealth funds talk a good deal, CIC does them. Tuesday’s $850m purchase of old and new shares in Singapore-listed Noble Group takes its total disclosed spending this year to about $4bn.

There is plenty more where that came from. At the end of last year, CIC had roughly $110bn in its overseas portfolio, according to Z-Ben Advisors, a fund consultancy. Of that, about $85bn was cash. Gao Xiqing, chief investment officer, told Japan’s Asahi newspaper in August that new investments in 2009 would be about 10 times greater than last year’s $4.8bn. If half that commitment comes from activating mandates with the cluster of non-Chinese fund managers CIC identified last year, it may have another $20bn to play with.