By Sohee Kim and Heejin Kim
K-pop agency Big Hit Entertainment Co. soared on its debut trading Thursday, boosting the fortunes of its billionaire founder and seven multimillionaire members of the world’s best-known boy band, BTS.
The management company, which makes almost all of its revenue from the pop sensation, opened at 270,000 won ($236) in Seoul from its initial public offering price of 135,000 won per share, and rose as much as 30%, the upper daily limit. That pushed Big Hit’s market value to 8.7 trillion won, more than the other three major K-pop agencies combined.
Big Hit’s $820 million offering was South Korea’s largest in three years. The firm managed to thrive even as the coronavirus crisis forced it to cancel live concerts, and investors piled into the IPO on BTS’s continued popularity from online performances and hit songs like “Dynamite,” its first English tune.
The shares closed up 91% for the day, sending the fortune of Big Hit founder Bang Si-hyuk to $2.8 billion, one of the biggest in Korea. He also shared his stake with BTS’s band members, giving each of them 68,385 shares of the company in August, a stake valued at more than $15 million.
Others at the agency are getting richer too: A stock-ownership association of…
