China Investment Corp., or CIC, is one of the parties eyeing Blackstone Group LP's A$3.5 billion retail portfolio in Australia, The Australian Financial Review's Street Talk reported.

Since the divestment made news in April, only local players like AMP Capital, Lendlease Corp. Ltd. and Charter Hall Group were named as being interested in the 10-asset portfolio of regional and sub-regional shopping centers.

Bidding will close at the end of May, with UBS, JPMorgan and JLL handling the sale.

The May 29 report also noted that a successful bid by the Chinese sovereign wealth fund could give Mirvac Group the management duties for the portfolio. A similar deal was struck between the pair back in 2015 when CIC acquired Investa Property Group's A$2.45 billion office portfolio.

Meanwhile, CIC is also tipped to be involved in another deal with Blackstone, with the fund in pole position to buy the firm's logistics business in Europe for more than €12 billion.

As of May 29, US$1 was equivalent to A$1.34.