Retail demand for BTS' label shares strong but falls short of expectations
06 October, 2020
Big Hit Entertainment, the management label for K-pop sensation BTS, saw robust but not spectacular demand in the to begin two days of share offerings for retail investors, with sentiment hurt by increasing talk that the band's members may have to complete military service.
In South Korea, all able-bodied men aged 18 or above are obliged at some time to serve in the military for about 20 months.
But there has also been discussion within parliament that the band, which includes just become the first South Korean group to attain No.1 on the united states Billboard Hot 100 singles chart with the song "Dynamite", could possibly be granted an exemption since it has successfully promoted the country's image abroad.
Individual investors on Monday submitted orders for 89.6 times the amount of stock distributed around them worth some 8.6 trillion won (US$7.4 billion), said lead arranger NH Investment & Securities.
That is about 50 % the worthiness of bids made on a record first day of retail bids in the recent listing for South Korean game developer Kakao Games.
"Demand is quite strong, its not as earth shattering as some had expected," said Hwang Hyun-jun, an analyst at DB Financial Investment.
With lots of liquidity in the market, some analysts had predicted gross bids from retail investors could hit 100 trillion won (US$85 billion).
Offering about 20per cent of the business in its IPO, Big Hit Entertainment, led by CEO Bang Si-hyuk, is defined to raise 962.6 billion won (US$830 million). In the institutional portion of the offer, investors expressed interest in a lot more than 1,000 times the number of shares on offer.
The label is because of make its market debut on Oct 15.
Source: www.channelnewsasia.com
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