(LEAD) BC Card to acquire 34 pct stake in internet-only K-Bank

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SEOUL, April 15 (Yonhap) -- BC Card Co., a credit card processing firm owned by KT Corp., plans to acquire a 34 percent stake in the internet-only K-Bank, the company said Wednesday.

The move came after KT's plan to become the biggest shareholder of K-Bank faltered due to a legal hurdle.

BC Card said it plans to buy a 10 percent stake in K-Bank from KT for 36.3 billion won (US$29.8 million) later this week.

BC Card said it will increase its stake to 34 percent by buying new shares of K-Bank, which has raised 594.9 billion won via a rights offer.

BC Card will spend 262.5 billion won to acquire the remaining 24 percent stake in K-Bank, the company said.

At a board meeting held Tuesday, BC Card decided to sell its 1.45 million shares in Mastercard for 429.9 billion won.

K-Bank was launched in 2017 by a KT-led consortium.

Last year, a law came into force allowing information technology firms to hold as much as a 34 percent stake in an internet-only bank.

However, the law prohibits a shareholder of an Internet-only bank from raising a stake in the bank if the shareholder is punished for violating an antitrust law.

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