The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition that Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC agreed to buy 19.9 per cent of ITC Holdings from Fortis for $1.23-billion in cash in one of the biggest investments Asian companies have made in United States power line operators (all figures U.S.). A Bloomberg dispatch to The Globe reports that the deal allows Fortis to keep an investment-grade credit rating. Fortis agreed in February to buy ITC for $6.9-billion in cash and stock. Shortly afterward, it said it would reach out to investors to gauge interest in selling a minority interest to help finance the cash portion. Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Stacy Nemeroff says the price meets expectations, enabling Fortis to proceed with a plan to issue $2-billion of debt to complete the ITC takeover. GIC's U.S. investments accounted for the biggest geographic share of its portfolio at 34 per cent last year. It purchased an interest in Oncor Electric Delivery, the owner of the biggest transmission network in Texas, along with Canadian investors in 2008. The $1.23-billion that GIC has agreed to pay for its interest represents a discount of about 7.5 per cent to ITC's current market value.