New K-Pop Billionaire: Agency CEO Behind BTS Sees Massive Gains After Historic IPO | Forbes

Published 3 years ago
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Big Hit Entertainment, the agency behind BTS, K-pop’s most popular boy band, raised 963 billion won ($840 million) from 7.13 million newly issued shares, marking South Korea’s biggest IPO since 2017, when Celltrion Healthcare raised 1 trillion won. The IPO was oversubscribed by more than 1,100 times by institutional investors. The company’s shares began trading on Thursday, making its founder, Bang Shi-hyuk, South Korea’s newest billionaire.

Shares opened at 270,000 won, above its IPO price of 135,000 won per share, boosting Big Hit’s valuation to more than 9 trillion won. Bang, 48, who now owns just under 35% of the company, currently has a net worth that Forbes estimates at $3.2 billion.

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The seven members of BTS, all in their twenties, also got a windfall: Each of them are now multi-millionaires through shares given to them earlier by Bang.

Read the full profile on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/gracechung/2020/10/14/agency-behind-k-pop-phenomenon-bts-goes-public-in-blockbuster-ipo-and-mints-new-billionaire/#1c98f744295b

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