Stock gift to BTS members balloons to $132.5 million | Inquirer Business

Stock gift to BTS members balloons to $132.5 million

/ 05:30 PM June 20, 2021

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Boy band BTS Photo by Yonhap via The Korea Herald/Asia News Network

SEOUL — Stocks gifted to members of boy band BTS have snowballed to a combined value of nearly 150 billion won ($132.5 million) over the course of about 10 months.

The gift — 478,695 common shares of BTS’ management agency Hybe that were evenly distributed to the seven members — is now valued at the domestic stock market at 149.8 billion won, as Hybe shares notched an all-time high for five straight trading days until Friday.

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This means members RM, Jin, Suga, J-hope, V, Jimin and Jungkook have each accumulated wealth worth 21.4 billion won in stocks. Each of their 68,385 shares in their pockets represent 0.18 percent of voting rights in the company.

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Among those under the age of 30 in Korea, all seven members ranked 43rd in a list of the richest people by stocks owned, according to an estimate by market tracker FnGuide.

Their valuation jumped 2.3 times from Hybe’s initial public offering in October 2020.

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Hybe stocks’ closing price came to 313,000 won apiece Friday, up 5.4 percent on a single trading day. Hybe’s market cap reached 11.1 trillion won, becoming the 38th-largest stock to be trading on the Korea Exchange’s main board Kospi. The shares were on a winning streak for seven consecutive trading days, with their price rising nearly 20 percent during the period.

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The latest upsurge in stock price comes as BTS’ new single “Butter,” released on May 21, took the top spot of Billboard’s Hot 100 Chart for three consecutive weeks.

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Hybe founder and CEO Bang Si-hyuk gave the stocks to its prized boy band a month before the company went public. Hybe, then known as Big Hit Entertainment, said the gift was a token of the long-term partnership between the company and the artists.

Bang owns 13.1 million common shares, or a 34.74 percent stake of Hybe, whose valuation exceeded 4.1 trillion won.

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TAGS: BTS, Entertainment, Finance, K-Pop, music, South Korea, stocks

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