HSBC is in line for a $US2.6 billion ($2.48 billion) capital gain after agreeing to sell its 15.6% stake in Chinese insurer Ping An to Thai group Charoen Pokphand for $US9.4 billion ($8.97 billion).

The sale brings the number of disposals and closures under CEO Stuart Gulliver to 42, as the bank strives to improve its capital position.

HSBC recently sold its non-life businesses in Singapore and Hong Kong to French group Axa and its Taiwanese life business to Allianz.

But it is not abandoning the Asian insurance market, having formed a property and casualty bancassurance partnership with Axa in Singapore and Hong Kong and agreed to distribute Axa’s non-life products in India, China and Indonesia for 10 years.

Charoen Pokphand is a multinational conglomerate established in Thailand in the 1920s. Ping An is the world’s third-largest insurer behind China Life and Allianz.