A pedestrian walks past a branch of Hua Xia Bank in Guangzhou city, south China's Guangdong province, 28 October 2014. [Photo: Imagine China]

Germany's biggest lender, Deutsche Bank, has agreed to sell its nearly 20-percent stake in Chinese bank Hua Xia for around 3.3 billion U.S. dollars to PICC Property and Casualty Company.

The sale still has to be given the stamp-of-approval by the China Banking Regulatory Commission.

Deutsche Bank started pumping money into Hua Xia in 2006.

However, the German bank says its massive writedowns on its stake in Hua Xia pushed it into the red in the third quarter.

Deutsche Bank says the sale of its Hua Xia shares to PICC will help firm up its bottom-line heading into next year.