When billionaire Ronald Burkle's Yucaipa investment operation agreed to put more than $25 million into a Chinese media company this fall, the investor group didn't include one of Yucaipa's high-profile partners: former President Bill Clinton.

The absence of Mr. Clinton from Yucaipa's investment in Xinhua Finance Media Ltd. appears to be the first tangible sign of a parting in the much-followed, five-year-old business relationship between Messrs. Clinton and Burkle. Mr. Clinton has been a senior adviser at Yucaipa and also had a financial interest in certain investments there.
[Bill Clinton]

But this week, Mr. Clinton indicated he plans to curtail his ties to Yucaipa should his wife, Hillary Clinton, win the Democratic presidential nomination. This follows a disclosure by the Clintons in June that they had sold millions of dollars of stocks to avoid situations -- like the one that a China-related investment might raise -- that could pose problems for Mrs. Clinton's campaign.

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