China's Legend Holdings plans to invest 10 billion yuan (about US$1.4 billion) over the next five year in industries such as clean energy and environmental protection, as part of its effort to transform itself into a corporate investment-holding company, China Daily reported Wednesday.

Legend Holdings, parent of the Chinese computer maker Lenovo Group, said it plans to build its core assets in five sectors - clean energy and environmental protection, new materials, hitech, financial services and consumer goods, the newspaper said.

The company also intends to become a well-respected international corporate investment-holding company, the newspaper said, citing Liu Chuanzhi, chairman of Legend Holdings.

The investment plan comes close on the heels of private investment firm China Oceanwide's decision to buy a 29 percent stake in Legend Holdings for 2.76 billion yuan.

This was first time that the Chinese State-owned technology firm was selling stake to a private investment group in the past two decades.

Legend was set up in 1984 by 11 scientific researchers with an investment of 200,000 yuan.

The company now has three key businesses, including IT, investment and property development. It runs five subsidiaries, including Lenovo Group, Digital China, Legend Capital, Rongke Property and Hony Capital. The company's total business volume last year was 115.2 billion yuan.

Legend also announced on Monday that it would join a group of investors in a new US$115 million angel investment fund launched by Kai-Fu Lee, Google's former China head.

(Xinhua News Agency September 9, 2009)