Big Hit Entertainment, the firm behind global pop phenomenon BTS, issued a regulatory filing today (September 28) officially pricing its shares at 135,000 South Korean won ($115) for its IPO in South Korea.
Founder and CEO, Bang Si-hyuk owns around 43.44% of the business and his stake is worth approximately $1.4bn at current exchange rates.
Additionally, the seven BTS members, who were each given 68,385 common shares in the company last month, now all own stakes worth nearly $8m.
As reported by Korean news site Soompi, the price was set following a book building process with institutional investors on Thursday (September 24) and Friday (September 25).
The stock was reportedly more than 1,000 times oversubscribed.
The company will raise 962.6bn South Korean won ($820 million) through the IPO and its first day of trading is October 15.
Big Hit is valued at 4.8 trillion South Korean won ($4.1bn).
Elsewhere, Reuters reports that members of BTS’ fanbase, or ARMY, are also bidding for shares in the company and are expected to drive retail demand for the stock.
K-pop news outlet All K-Pop reports that some fans are taking out loans of hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy shares.
Soompi reports that subscriptions from retail investors will be taken on October 5 and 6.
The news of the share pricing follows the continued success of BTS’ No.1 single Dynamite, as well as today’s news of their upcoming online concert called “BTS MAP OF THE SOUL ON:E”.
Held in Seoul, the event will be live-streamed worldwide on October 10 and 11.
BTS’ previous online concert in June, BANG BANG CON The Live, attracted 756,600 viewers, breaking the record for the largest paid virtual concert audience, banking close to $20 million in ticket sales in the process.
In H1 2020 period, Big Hit generated revenues of 294bn South Korean Won ($249m at current exchange rates) which was significantly up on the same period of last year (H1 2019), when the company posted half-year revenues of 200.1bn Won ($166m).
In 2019, Big Hit generated revenues of 587.2 billion South Korean won (over $500 million), which was up 95% year-on-year.Music Business Worldwide