The head of China's new sovereign investment fund, Lou Jiwei, has a gentle rejoinder for the foreigners flooding his office with potential deals after his fund's surprise purchase of a stake in Blackstone, the US private equity group.

With the Blackstone purchase, a $3bn (€2.2bn, £1.5bn) pre-listing deal cut in June when the fledgling company did not even have an office, Mr Lou likened himself to a hunter with an opportunist eye for the quick kill.