HSBC Holdings received regulatory approval for the 7.4bn-dollar sale of its stake in Ping An Insurance to Thai billionaire Dhanin Chearavanont, the bank said in a statement Friday.

The China Insurance Regulatory Commission gave the green light for the sale of 976.1m Hong Kong-traded shares in the nation's second-largest insurer. Payment will made in cash and transferred by February 6th.

The London based bank will make a $2.6bn profit out of the disposal of its interest to Dhanin's Charoen Pokphand (CP) Group.

The transaction ends six weeks of speculation over the deal's fate.

In December HSBC agreed to sell its 15.57% holding to four subsidiaries of CP Group in two phases for about $9.4bn.

The first stage, comprising shares valued at about $1.93bn, was completed on December 7th, while the rest required approval from the regulators.

Shares in HSBC climbed 0.14% to 717.70p at 14:11 Friday.

On the same day the bank also announced the appointment of Manveen Pam Kaur as Group Head of Internal Audit and a Group Managing Director.

She will take over on April 1st from Paul Lawrence who stepped down after 31 years of service.

Group Chief Executive, Stuart Gulliver, said: "I would like to thank Paul for his dedicated service to HSBC over many years, including as CEO in the Philippines, Singapore and the United States, and most recently in overseeing the restructuring of Internal Audit as a global function.

"Pam brings enormous experience of audit, risk management, finance and compliance from other global financial institutions. We are delighted to welcome her to the group."

RD

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