The members of the most popular South Korean K-pop band, BTS, became multi-million-dollar shareholders. This is thanks to the shares they have now from their label, Big Hit Entertainment, with a very juicy offering that reaches $820 million.
Big Hit Entertainment is now listed on the Seoul Stock Exchange, and the public offering will give BTS a total value of more than $4 billion, giving the K-pop band more career prominence and fame. This move by Big Hit Entertainment entering the IPO has become the biggest public offering in South Korea since 2017.
BTS members Kim Tae-hyung, Jung Ho-seok, Kim Nam-joon, Kim Seok-jin, Park Ji-min, Jeon Jung-kook, and Min Yoon-gi are benefiting from the IPO. They each received 68,385 shares from Big Hit Entertainment, and each of their individual shares are now worth $7.9 million.
What is a public listing?
When a company goes public in its country, it means that it has opened shares to the public to invest in its projects. That is, people can become a partner of the company by contributing a sum of money. As there are more partners within a company, the commercial value of the same grows, and the partners who already had invested capital can double it.
Who Benefited the Most from Big Hit Entertainment IPO?
Big Hit Entertainment, which currently represents the musical and commercial career of the Bangtan Boys, was just a regular company a few years ago, but now it is a true phenomenon. It is one of the entertainment companies with the highest earnings per year worldwide.
Big Hit was founded by Bang Si Hyuk in 2005. For now, he owns more than 40 percent of this company, which means that he is worth $1.6 billion. Compared to the number of shares boy band members own, Bang Si Hyuk is definitely the biggest winner of the IPO. His shares are 200 times larger than the shares of each member of BTS.
How Much Money Does BTS Make?
BTS as an entertainment brand is valued at over $3.6 billion a year for South Korea’s national economy, and one out of 13 foreign tourists visited South Korea in 2017 just to go see BTS, according to a study by the Hyundai Research Institute.
In August, Big Hit Entertainment reported semi-annual earnings of more than $30 million derived from sales of promotional items and online concerts, which highly compensated for the several event cancellations the band had due to COVID-19.
This phenomenal boy band has managed to sell no less than 11 million copies of albums since 2013.
The Future of Big Hit Entertainment and BTS
The reality is that Big Hit Entertainment is heavily dependent on BTS, with 87.7% of its net income in the first half of 2020 coming from the group. In 2019, the importance of BTS was even more significant for Big Hit Entertainment, as 97.4% of its net income came from the boy band.
As we can see, the record label is actively working to diversify its income stream. It’s dangerous to rely on a single band to be a successful company. It’s possible that BTS members will have to enter mandatory military service in the following years, and this may become a disaster for Big Hit Entertainment until they find alternative ways to make money.
But . . . Who is the Richest Member of BTS?
Each member of BTS has an estimated net worth of $8 million, except for one, and that would be Jung Ho-Seok—aka J-Hope—who reportedly has about $12 million.
If you are wondering how he managed to knead a little more than his bandmates, then here is the answer: Anyone would think that being in a global-dominant band and being an idol 24/7 wouldn’t give him a lot of free time, but J-Hope has also managed to maneuver himself as a solo artist and collaborated with other K-pop artists.
His first solo mixtape saw the light of day in 2018, reaching number 19 on the rap album chart, positioning him as the third Korean artist in history to appear on the chart.
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We have to admit, BTS members are not available in the Payphone X catalog for now. But we have lots of other prominent artists who will be happy to get in touch with you!
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