Lee Soo-man South Korea’s richest stockholding celebrity

K-pop music mogul Lee Soo-man has been named the richest stockholder amongst Korean celebrities, overtaking former list topper actor Bae Yong-joon, according to a website’s latest list of the wealthiest Korean celebrities.

Lee, founder and largest shareholder of SM Entertainment, owns stocks in the company worth 18.73 billion won as of July 3, the highest among celebrities in Korea, website chaebul.com announced of its most recent valuation results.

The stock value of SM Entertainment stood at 1,595 won early this year, but had climbed as high as 4,960 won, jumping nearly 200 percent in value.

The sudden rise in stock value for Lee appears to be largely due to the huge success of the nine-member idol group Girls’ Generation, whom Lee created and nurtured into superstars.

SM Entertainment recorded 14.4 billion won in sales volume during the first quarter of this year, an 82.3% increase from last year, with the girl group earning handsome income through album sales and endorsements. The agency raked in 2.8 billion won in profit during the first quarter alone, compared with being 200 million won in the red last year.

Korean Wave star Bae Yong-joon came in second behind Lee with 13.69 billion won worth of stocks, a 41.7% increase from early this year.

Bae participated in KEYEST’s paid-in capital increase and became the company’s majority holder in 2007. At one time the actor’s stock worth was estimated to be around 100 billion won.

Entertainer Rain was ranked third, with his shares of J. Tune Entertainment Co., Ltd. estimated at 5.26 billion won, up 113.8 % from early this year.

Editor : Jessica Kim jesskim@asiae.co.kr