Korea Investment Corp, Hana Retain BOfA Stakes - Sources

South Korea's sovereign wealth fund Korea Investment Bank and Hana Financial Group (086790.SE) have kept their stakes in Bank of America, people familiar with the matter said Friday.

KIC and Hana acquired the stakes when their holdings in Merrill Lynch were converted to Bank of America shares after BofA acquired Merrill earlier this year.

"KIC is still holding the shares...We, of course, have a contingency plan, but haven't touched" the shareholding, a person familiar with KIC matters told Dow Jones Newswires.

In January last year, KIC invested $2 billion to acquire newly-issued Merrill Lynch preferred shares.

It currently holds a stake of around 0.97% in BofA, the person said.

Meanwhile, a person at Hana Financial said the financial institution has kept its stake in BofA, which it acquired following its purchase of $50 million of Merrill Lynch shares last year.

Japan's Mizuho Financial Group (8411.TO) has also said it doesn't plan to sell its Bank of America stake for now.

The comments follow news earlier Friday that Temasek Holdings Pte. Ltd., Singapore's state-owned investment company, had sold its entire 3.8% stake in Bank of America.

-By Jin-Young Yook and Kanga Kong, Dow Jones Newswires; 822-2198-2230; [e-mail]

(Atsuko Fukase in Tokyo contributed to this story)