HSBC is selling its entire shareholdings in Ping An Insurance Company of China to a group of Chinese firms for HK$72.74 billion ($9.385 billion).

The shares, representing 15.57 per cent of the issued share capital of Ping An Insurance, will be sold to indirect wholly-owned subsidiaries of Charoen Pokphand Group, namely All Gain Trading, Bloom Fortune Group, Business Fortune Holdings and Easy Boom Developments. The HSBC firms selling are HSBC Insurance and HSBC Asia-Pacific. 

Under the terms of the deal, around 20.8 per cent of the shares will be transferred to the purchasers on 7 December 2012. The acquisition of the rest of the 79.2 per cent will be financed in part in cash and in part under a facility agreement with China Development Bank Hong Kong, pending regulatory approval from the China Insurance Regulatory Commission. 

"This transaction represents further progress in the execution of the Group's strategy. China remains a key market for the Group and we will strengthen our focus on growing our own operations and building on our long-term strategic banking partnership with the Bank of Communications," said Stuart Gulliver, group chief executive of HSBC Group. 

HSBC estimates that the post-tax gain on the sale of the shares would be around $2.6 billion.