Authorities have approved the purchase of a stake in China's CITIC group by Spanish banking group Banco Bilbao Vizcay Argentaria (BBVA), sources with CITIC group confirmed Friday.

The transaction was completed here recently, sources said, with BBVA spending 4.885 billion yuan to purchase a 4.83 percent stake in China CITIC Bank (CNCB).

It also spent 4.872 billion Hong Kong dollars to purchase 15 percent of CITIC International Financial Holdings (CIFH) in Hong Kong.

The cooperation between BBVA and CIFH has entered a new phase, sources said. The two companies are beginning to integrate their Asian business, making CITIC Ka Wah Bank, wholly owned by CIFH, their single operating platform for corporate banking and treasury business in Asia.

BBVA, headquartered in Madrid, is a multinational financial services group that operates in 32 countries with total assets of about 411.9 billion euros at the end of 2006.

Beijing-headquartered CITIC Bank, the seventh largest commercial bank in China with over 400 branches, saw its total assets reach 700 billion yuan at the end of last year.

Source: Xinhua