[SM Management Battle] Kakao Officially Joins... Public Tender Offer at 150,000 KRW per Share

Kakao has officially entered the SM Entertainment (SM) management rights battle through a public tender offer.

They plan to purchase up to 35% of the shares held by general shareholders at 150,000 KRW per share. This price is 25% higher than the 120,000 KRW per share offered by HYBE in last month's tender offer. If the tender offer succeeds, Kakao will surpass HYBE, which holds 19.43% of the voting rights, to become the largest shareholder of SM Entertainment.

According to the investment banking (IB) industry on the 7th, Kakao and Kakao Entertainment held an emergency board meeting the previous day and decided to carry out the tender offer from the 7th to the 26th.

The total acquisition amount is approximately 1.25 trillion KRW, with Kakao and Kakao Entertainment planning to invest half each. Korea Investment & Securities is acting as the lead manager. Earlier, HYBE announced on the same day that 233,817 shares (0.98%) responded to its SM Entertainment tender offer, which was conducted until the 1st.

This is far below the target of 25%. Last month, HYBE secured a total of 15.78%, including the shares purchased from former SM Entertainment Chief Producer Lee Soo-man. Including the remaining 3.65% of shares delegated by former Chief Producer Lee, the total is 19.43%.

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