K-pop group BTS' management label prices IPO at top of its range

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Big Hit Entertainment, the management label of hugely popular South Korean K-Pop group BTS, priced its initial public offering at the top of its range on Monday.

SEOUL • Big Hit Entertainment, the management label of hugely popular South Korean K-pop group BTS, priced its initial public offering (IPO) at the top of its range on Monday, in South Korea's largest listing in three years.

This comes as Big Hit announced on Monday that the group's second album release this year, Be (Deluxe Edition), will be released on Nov 20.

Institutional investors sought more than 1,000 times the number of shares on offer, with Big Hit riding on the success of the seven-member band, who have become the first South Korean group to reach No. 1 on the United States Billboard Hot 100 singles chart with the song Dynamite.

Big Hit priced the IPO at 135,000 won a share, it said in a regulatory filing, the top of an indicative price range of 105,000-135,000 won announced earlier this month.

About 1,420 institutional investors indicated interest for shares in the offering, looking for 1,117 times the number available, the filing said. About 98 per cent said they would pay the top-range price or more.

Institutional and retail investors' subscriptions are due on Oct 5 to 6.

The IPO will raise 962.6 billion won through the offer of 7.13 million new shares. It is the biggest South Korean IPO since Celltrion HealthCare raised 1 trillion won in 2017.

Based on the pricing, Big Hit's total market value is expected to be about 4.8 trillion won, taking into account common shares plus redeemable preferred shares that will be converted into common shares upon the IPO.

With plenty of liquidity in the market, some analysts predict gross bids from retail investors could hit 100 trillion won, making it South Korea's hottest initial public offering.

REUTERS

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on September 29, 2020, with the headline K-pop group BTS' management label prices IPO at top of its range. Subscribe