Morgan Stanley was said to have won approval from Chinese regulators to sell its 34.3 percent stake in investment bank China International Capital Corp, Shanghai Securities News reported Tuesday.

Regulators have agreed to the New York-based company's exit from CICC but they still need to conduct a procedural review, which is likely to be done by the end of this month, before granting official approval, the newspaper said, without citing any sources.

An official of Morgan Stanley told Shanghai Daily yesterday that he could not comment as he did not have any information about the issue.

Earlier media reports have reported that Morgan Stanley was also said to have discussed with private equity firms KKR and TPG about selling its stake in CICC for more than US$1 billion. The sale will pave the way for the bank to set up a new investment banking joint venture with China Fortune Securities Co in China after it sold its stake in CICC.

Morgan Stanley has been seeking to sell the CICC stake for over two years, and it signed a memorandum of understanding with Shanghai-based China Fortune at the end of 2007 for the venture.

Morgan Stanley invested US$37 million to form CICC with China Construction Bank Corp in 1995.

In China, a foreign firm can set up only one investment banking joint venture. The US bank has to sell its CICC stake in order to form a venture with China Fortune.