S.Korea's Hana to buy $50 mln Merrill stake- paper

SEOUL, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Hana Financial Group (086790.KS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), South Korea's No. 4 financial services firm, will buy $50 million worth of Merrill Lynch (MER.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) shares through its banking unit, Maeil Business Newspaper reported on Monday.

Hana Bank, the group's banking arm, will buy the Merrill shares at $50 apiece from Singapore's Temasek Holdings [TEM.UL], Maeil said, citing an unnamed source at Hana Financial.

A spokesman at the group could not confirm the report.

Late last year Temasek, a Singapore state fund and a major shareholder in Hana Financial, bought $4.4 billion worth of Merrill shares at $48 a share as the U.S. brokerage, hit by subprime mortgage losses, sought to raise capital.

The report follows government-owned Korea Investment Corporation's $2 billion purchase of Merrill's new preferred shares.

Temasek and Goldman Sachs (GS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) are top shareholders in Hana Financial with a combined 19 percent. (Reporting by Rhee So-eui; Editing by Keiron Henderson