Bermuda-domiciled trading house Jardine Matheson is selling its 50 percent stake in Jardine Fleming, the 28-year-old Asian joint venture with UK investment banking and fund management group, Flemings.

The shares and cash deal will allow Jardine Matheson to raise its stake in the Flemings' parent company, Robert Fleming Holdings, from 4.5 percent to 15 percent through the issue of new shares.

That could rise to 17.5 percent if a 40 million ($66.4 million) cash payment is used to buy shares.

Jardine Matheson's sale of its interest in Jardine Fleming, which it valued at 180 million, could be seen as a further globalisation of Jardine Matheson, which was in Hong Kong 150 years ago, and prior to British colonisation.

Flemings' interests include a corporate finance division, the UK's Save & Prosper retail financial services business, a Luxembourg-based European fund management arm and a US joint venture, Rowe Price-Fleming International.

The Financial Times this week reported the deal could calm speculation about Flemings' future as an independent investment bank, but will be viewed as Jardine's further move away from Hong Kong, since Chinese rule was re-instituted last year.

Beijing has looked at Jardine suspiciously since it moved its domicile and listings from Hong Kong to Bermuda in 1984, which led to a huge sell off on the Hang Seng Index.

The Fleming family will continue to hold more than 30 percent of the bank, while Jardine Matheson's stake is capped at 20 percent.