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| Bang Si-huyuk and BTS |
Bang Si-hyuk, the founder of the agency behind K-pop boy-band sensation BTS, has more than doubled his wealth in a matter of months as shares of his company surged, reports Bloomberg.
Bang is worth about $3.2 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, after Hybe Co., formerly known as Big Hit Entertainment, rose 130% since going public in South Korea in October. When its initial public offering priced, his net worth was around $1.5 billion.
It’s a testament to the popularity of BTS, the band with some of the best-selling K-pop albums of all time. It may also signal optimism about Hybe’s global ambitions after it announced in April the acquisition of the company behind worldwide stars Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande.
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| Bang Si-hyuk |
Hybe said on April 2 it was paying $1.05 billion for Ithaca Holdings, the U.S. media group behind the careers of Bieber and Grande. Scooter Braun, who led Ithaca, became co-CEO of Hybe America after the deal.
Company filings show Braun holds a 1% stake in Hybe, which is worth $123.7 million. The seven members of BTS, all in their 20s, each have identical shareholdings valued at $18.3 million. Bieber and Grande each hold shares worth $14.3 million.
Bang started the company in 2005 after a career as a music producer. Initially, the business was so quiet that artists only stopped by the office to play tennis matches on the company’s Nintendo Wii, Bang said in a 2017 interview. The firm almost went bankrupt in its early years, he said, before BTS released its debut album in 2013.
The band’s latest hit, Butter, has spent weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Hybe said in its IPO prospectus last year that almost 88% of its revenue in the first half of 2020 came from BTS.
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