[Market Focus] HYBE Drops Over 3% as Bang Sihyuk Appears for Police Questioning

Shares of HYBE are showing a decline of over 3% on the domestic stock market on the morning of September 15. This comes in the wake of Chairman Bang Sihyuk being summoned by the police for the first time on suspicion of defrauding investors for personal gain.

As of 10:28 a.m. on this day, HYBE's stock was trading at 283,000 won per share, down 3.08% from the previous trading day. Despite strong second-quarter earnings and expectations for the easing of China's Hallyu ban, the stock has been underperforming among entertainment stocks due to legal risks.

Bang Sihyuk, chairman of HYBE, is appearing at the Financial Crime Investigation Unit of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency in Mapo-gu, Seoul on the 15th. 2025.09.15 Photo by Yoon Dongju

At around 9:55 a.m. that day, Chairman Bang stood at the photo line in front of the Metropolitan Investigation Unit building in Mapo-gu, Seoul, and stated, "I am deeply sorry for causing concern with my personal matters. I will faithfully cooperate with today's investigation." When asked by reporters whether he had instructed the sale of shares during the initial public offering process or told major investors that there were no plans for listing, he replied, "I will answer during the investigation today."

Chairman Bang is suspected of deceiving existing investors in 2019, before HYBE's listing, by making it appear as if the IPO plan would be delayed. He is accused of causing HYBE executives, who had established a private equity fund (PEF) through their own investment and founding, to sell their shares to a special purpose company (SPC) set up by that PEF.

It was also found that, despite having signed a shareholder agreement stipulating that 30% of the capital gains from the sale of SPC-held shares would be paid to Chairman Bang, the existence of this agreement and the relationship between HYBE executives and the SPC were concealed during the 2020 listing process. In connection with this, financial authorities filed a complaint with the prosecution against Chairman Bang last July, accusing him of fraudulent and unfair trading under the Capital Markets Act.

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