K Pop Boy Band Launches $1b IPO
All seven members of boy band BTS have become multimillionaires after their label, Big Hit Entertainment, pulled off South Korea’s biggest stock market listing in three years.
The K-pop label is issuing its shares at 135,000 won ($115) each, Big Hit said in a filing on Monday, raising 962.55 million won ($822 million) and valuing the company at 4.8 trillion won ($4.1 billion). That makes the deal South Korea’s largest stock offering since July 2017, according to data compiled by Dealogic.
The company is run by CEO Bang Si-Hyuk, a longtime music producer who is credited with creating BTS and setting it on the road to stardom in 2013. Bang owns about 43% of Big Hit, according to a stock exchange filing. The IPO has made Bang a billionaire.
Bang gave each of the BTS band members 68,385 shares in August. Those holdings are now worth nearly $7.9 million each at the issue price. The shares start trading on October 15.