Industrial Bank invests 12 billion KRW in BTS, earns 6x returns... 'Parasite' also raises profit expectations

[Asia Economy Reporter Kangwook Cho] The Korea Development Bank (KDB) is reaping the benefits of investments in cultural content such as the globally sensational film "Parasite" and the seven-member male idol group BTS (Bangtan Sonyeondan). In particular, the investment in BTS yielded returns exceeding six times the initial amount.

According to KDB on the 14th, the film "Parasite," which recently won four awards including Best Picture at the 92nd Academy Awards in the United States, received approximately 700 million KRW in direct and indirect investments for production and promotion from KDB Capital, a subsidiary of KDB.

KDB Capital and Cape Investment & Securities invested a total of 1.74 billion KRW through the "Cape No.1 Cinema Index Fund," which was established with a scale of 10 billion KRW. Of this, KDB Capital's investment amounted to 520 million KRW. Additionally, KDB Capital made a direct investment of about 150 million KRW in "Parasite." From 2017 to 2019, KDB Capital invested in a total of 42 films including "Exit," "1987," "The Battleship Island," "The Fortress," and "Intimate Strangers." Including these, the total amount invested through KDB Capital and its affiliates in the film industry over the past decade since 2010 has reached approximately 53 billion KRW.

An official from KDB explained, "As a policy financial institution, we are actively fostering the cultural content industry by utilizing our subsidiaries to invest beyond the bank’s traditional investment areas into film production, while also generating profits through these investments."

In fact, among KDB’s investments in various content sectors such as music, media, games, dramas, and webtoons, BTS stands out as a representative success story.

Since 2011, KDB has formed four funds totaling 299.1 billion KRW and invested a total of 26.9 billion KRW (12 billion KRW from KDB itself) in Big Hit Entertainment, the agency representing BTS. By November of last year, KDB had recovered 213.3 billion KRW (75.1 billion KRW from KDB), achieving an investment return rate of approximately 6.3 times. Debuting in 2013, BTS has gained immense popularity domestically and in North America and Europe, topping the US Billboard 200 and the UK Official Charts.

A KDB official stated, "With the success of BTS followed by the film 'Parasite,' we have once again confirmed the global competitiveness of Korean Wave cultural content in music, performance, and film. We will continue to lead domestic innovative growth by strengthening manufacturing companies, nurturing unicorn companies, and simultaneously investing continuously in the cultural content industry."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.