Shenzhen Development Bank (SDB) announced Monday that the majority of its shareholders had approved a private placement to China Ping An Insurance (Group), China's second largest insurer, in the bank's extraordinary shareholders meeting.

The bank said in a statement to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange that 93.6 percent of its shareholders had agreed that the bank would provide no less than 370 million but not more than 520 million additional shares to Ping An Life Insurance, a major subsidiary of Ping An Insurance.

The shares would be issued at a price of 18.26 yuan (about 2.67U.S.dollars) per share, an average of SDB's share prices in the past 20 trading days before June 13, when the bank's Board of Directors announced the private placement plan.

The approval marked shareholders' high recognition to the placement plan, and would lay a solid foundation to further deals, said sources with Ping An Insurance.

Ping An said earlier this month that it planned to buy stake worth up to a combined 22 billion yuan in SDB. It would also buy 520 million shares from the U.S.-based TPG's Asian arm Newbridge Capital, which is currently SDB's top shareholder, for 11.45 billion yuan by the end of 2010.

The two deals would enable Ping An to acquire no more than a 30percent stake in Shenzhen Development Bank, and become the top shareholder instead.

The private placement plan still needs approvals from China Insurance Regulatory Commission and China Securities Regulatory Commission after approval from its shareholders, said the statement.

(Xinhua News Agency June 30, 2009)