Dec. 11 (Bloomberg) -- China Investment Corp., which manages the $200 billion sovereign wealth fund, won't find it easy to generate high enough returns to meet its financing costs, general manager Gao Xiqing said.

China's government today sold 750 billion yuan ($102 billion) of 15-year bonds to the central bank as part of the 1.55 trillion yuan it is seeking to raise to fund China Investment. The securities carry a 4.45 percent coupon, compared with 4.66 percent on similar-maturity debt sold last month.

``The returns on our national foreign currency reserves have never reached this level before,'' Gao told a conference in Beijing. ``I'm not sure I can do much better than that. We feel big pressure and it's not easy to be successful.''

The sovereign wealth fund, modeled on Singapore's Temasek Holdings Pte., was started in September to help diversify the world's largest holdings of foreign currencies. The fund in May invested $3 billion for a 9.4 percent stake in New York-based Blackstone Group LP, manager of the world's biggest buyout fund. Blackstone shares have since lost a third of their value.

China set up Asia's biggest state-owned investment company after surging trade surpluses helped push the nation's currency reserves to a record $1.46 trillion. The agency's creation has spurred speculation of a flood of Chinese investments into overseas companies and resources such as oil and metals.

The fund won't ``steal resources'' from other countries, said Gao, former deputy chairman at the National Council for Social Security Fund. He said China Investment wants to be treated as a common investor in financial markets and will follow international practice regarding disclosure.

To contact the reporter for this story: Zhang Dingmin in Beijing at Dzhang14@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: December 10, 2007 23:40 EST