EDP and China Three Gorges (CTG) said their partnership would continue, as a vote by the Portuguese utility’s shareholders effectively killed a €9bn ($10bn) takeover bid by the Chinese giant that had big implications for the wind power sector.

Shareholders of EDP – majority-owner of global renewables player EDPR – rejected a change to voting rights rules that CTG said was a key condition of its bid for the utility continuing.

Portugal’s financial regulator had earlier said that CTG’s offer would be considered at an end unless the change was accepted.

CTG’s offer – first tabled in May 2018 – had in any case become stuck in the regulatory mud, with US concerns over Chinese ownership of EDPR’s huge American wind power fleet apparently a key factor.

The Chinese group already owns 23% of EDP, but its bid for full control had also been labelled as too low by the utility’s own board.

CTG has made a number of strategic investments in EDP’s business, including EDPR’s wind assets, since it acquired a sizeable stake in the Portuguese group in 2011.

In a statement released before this week’s vote, CTG said it “will remain a long-term strategic investor in EDP … regardless of the final result of the offer”.

EDP CEO Antonio Mexia told journalists after the vote: “What happened today had to do with this particular offer and not with the company’s future ... the partnership with CTG is to be maintained,” Reuters reported.

EDP said a key focus of its ongoing partnership with CTG will be in Latin America.

Reuters claimed earlier this year that the two could consider a joint venture in the region, where EDP has considerable wind and solar assets, if the global deal failed.