When CICC, the Chinese investment bank part-owned by Morgan Stanley of the US, held its quarterly board meeting in the opulent Sukhothai Hotel in Bangkok in January, the mood was far from collegial.

Morgan Stanley, reeling from more than $9bn (£4.5bn, €5.8bn) in write-offs related to America’s subprime loans fiasco, was determined to sell its 34 per cent stake. Only when it rid itself of CICC would Beijing regulators allow it to undertake further initiatives in China and, besides, it needed all the cash it could get. At the same time, the Chinese management of CICC – headed by Levin Zhu, son of Zhu Rongji, the former prime minister – was determined to cut the best deal before severing the connection.