Big Hit's Bang Si-hyuk Ahead of IPO... Approaching 14th Place in Domestic Stock Wealth

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Eunmo Koo] As Big Hit Entertainment (hereafter Big Hit), the agency of BTS, approaches its listing on the KOSPI market, interest is growing in the stock-rich individuals who will emerge from this initial public offering (IPO).

According to Big Hit and the financial investment industry on the 4th, Big Hit will conduct a public offering subscription for general investors on the 5th and 6th, and will be listed on the KOSPI market in mid-month.

The most notable figure is Bang Si-hyuk, CEO of Big Hit. CEO Bang holds 12,377,337 shares, which at the public offering price (135,000 KRW) amounts to a stake value of 1.6709 trillion KRW. This places him 14th overall in the domestic listed company stock-rich ranking compiled by Chaebul.com (as of the 29th of last month), ahead of Lee Boo-jin, President of Hotel Shilla, and Lee Seo-hyun, Chairwoman of Samsung Welfare Foundation (each with 1.6096 trillion KRW).

If Big Hit succeeds in a 'ttasang' (where the opening price is set at twice the public offering price and hits the upper limit on the first day of listing), like SK Biopharm and Kakao Games, CEO Bang's stock wealth would increase to 4.3444 trillion KRW. In this case, CEO Bang would surpass Chung Mong-koo, Chairman of Hyundai Motor Group (4.3436 trillion KRW), ranking 5th among domestic stock-rich individuals.

BTS members are also expected to join the ranks of stock-rich individuals worth hundreds of billions through this listing. Earlier in early August, CEO Bang gifted a total of 478,695 common shares equally to the seven members ahead of the IPO. Based on the public offering price, this amounts to 64.6 billion KRW, and 168 billion KRW in the case of ttasang. Accordingly, immediately after listing, each member's stock wealth is expected to range from 9.2 billion KRW (at the public offering price) up to 24 billion KRW (in the case of ttasang).

Executives and employees who received stock options are also anticipating evaluation gains worth hundreds of billions. CEO Yoon Seok-jun, General Director of Management Kim Shin-gyu, and one unnamed employee hold stock options to purchase Big Hit shares at 1,063 KRW each, about 1/127th of the public offering price, with 120,000 shares, 88,000 shares, and 128,000 shares respectively. Their expected evaluation gains based on the public offering price are 16.1 billion KRW for CEO Yoon, 11.8 billion KRW for Director Kim, and 17.1 billion KRW for the employee; in the case of ttasang, these increase to 42 billion KRW, 30.8 billion KRW, and 44.8 billion KRW respectively.

Additionally, 20% of the public offering shares, worth 192.5 billion KRW at the public offering price, have been allocated to the employee stock ownership association. As of the end of July, Big Hit has 313 employees, each able to subscribe to approximately 615 million KRW worth of shares.

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