Tidjane Thiam, the chief executive of Prudential, has abandoned his controversial proposed second directorship at Société Générale, the French bank, to head off a deep rift with shareholders.

In a brief statement this afternoon, Prudential said that Mr Thiam would not be joining SocGen as a non-executive director at the end of May as previously planned.

As revealed by The Times today, shareholders reacted furiously to Mr Thiam's decision, which comes as he tries to convince investors to back a $35.5 billion (£23.3 billion) acquisition in Asia, funded by the largest rights issue in history.

Shareholders were harshly critical of the move yesterday, describing Mr Thiam's decision to split his time as a disgrace.

Mr Thiam, who has been chief executive of the Pru for less than six months, had planned to join SocGen this year, although the insurer insisted yesterday that his additional appointment would not interfere with the acquisition or the rights issue.

Independent directors at SocGen are expected to attend at least five board meetings a year, lasting about three hours and held in London, Paris and Brussels.

Mr Thiam would have received an annual fee of €35,000 (£31,000) for his role.

He unveiled the agreed deal to buy AIA from American International Group less than three weeks ago.

It is the largest insurance deal in history and will transform the insurer into a market leader in Asia.

However, Mr Thiam has battled to sell the deal to shareholders, who have fretted that the Pru is overpaying and have questioned how long it would take to generate returns.

Mr Thiam said today: "I am very flattered to have been selected for the role of independent director at Société Générale, which is an outstanding organisation, but my absolute priority is to continue to focus on delivering strong results for our shareholders and on ensuring the success of the transformational transaction and the subsequent integration with AIA. I will therefore not be pursuing this opportunity with Société Générale."