The US lender has reached a deal to sell its stake in a Chinese bank. It says the move is part of a focus on growing its core franchise in China.

Citigroup has reached a definitive agreement to sell its 20 per cent equity stake in China Guangfa Bank to China Life Insurance Company.

The financial terms of the transaction are not material to Citigroup’s earnings, which will be updated in its first quarter results on 15 April, it said yesterday.

“While we are proud of our decade-long partnership with China Guangfa Bank, this transaction is consistent with the simplification of Citi and allows us to focus our resources in China on growing our core franchise further,” Francisco Aristeguieta, chief executive of Citi Asia-Pacific, said in a statement.

Citi, which has been in China since 1902 and in 2007 was among the first international banks to locally incorporate in China, first acquired its stake in CGB through a consortium investment in 2006 that included China Life Insurance Company. 

The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2016, subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. Citi’s institutional clients group advised Citi on this transaction. 

Among recent developments at Citigroup, the US lender said in February that its head of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and country head, Singapore, Michael Zink, was retiring after almost 30 years at the group. Zink joined Citi in 1988 as a corporate relationship manager and became head of ASEAN for the group in 2012.