Big Hit Entertainment, the agency behind K-pop sensation BTS, has set the price of its shares being sold in an IPO at a price which reflects massive fan interest.
The company said on Monday in a regulatory filing that its shares would be sold at KRW135,000 apiece. That was at the top of a previously indicated range of KRW105000-KRW135,000, and follows two days of demand forecasting with institutional investors.
The portion of the issue reserved for local and foreign professional investors was more that 1,100 times subscribed, with 1,420 institutions taking part. Retail investors are expected to get their chance to apply for shares on Oct. 5-6, and surveys have shown that many fans will attempt to subscribe.
At the indicated share price, the company will raise $820 million (KRW963 billion) and be valued at $4.09 billion (KRW4.8 trillion).
The shares are expected to make their public trading debut on the Kospi exchange on Oct. 15. But the amount of money available for recent hot stocks, including Kakao Games and SK Biopharmaceuticals, and the actions of BTS’s legion of fans, could drive prices even higher.
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The share listing comes at a time when BTS has broken records for YouTube views and the band recently topped the Billboard charts. Over the weekend BTS announced a new album release. The newly released documentary film “Break The Silence: The Movie” earned $395,000 in Korean theaters over the weekend, good enough for fourth place behind “Tenet” and two Korean films “The Swordsman” and “Diva.” After four days on release the film has grossed $554,000.
Big Hit announced on Saturday that it had won three defamation suits against an unnamed individual who had made malicious online postings about BTS. Seoul Eastern District Court imposed a fine of $3,400 (KRW4 million). The company said that it would pursue criminal cases against other trolls, and provide evidence to the police.
