CHINA Mobile yesterday signed a strategic partnership with Shanghai Pudong Development Bank by paying 39.8 billion yuan (US$6 billion) for a 20 percent stake in the lender.

The world's biggest telco signed a deal to buy 2.2 billion yuan-backed A shares of the Shanghai-based bank earlier this year.

But Moody's Investors Service said earlier that the ''transaction could distract China Mobile during the rollout of the home-grown TD-SCDMA 3G mobile platform."