[HONG KONG] Minority shareholders of Hong Kong-listed Citic Pacific Ltd have approved a landmark deal to acquire US$36 billion of assets from its state-owned parent Citic Group Corp, China's biggest and oldest financial conglomerate.

The go-ahead clears the way for the purchase of practically all of the conglomerate's assets.

In doing so, shareholders endorsed not just China's ambition to reform its state-owned enterprises (SOEs). They also backed a plan to give Citic Pacific direct exposure to the mainland's banking sector - and along with that, the country's bad loans problems.