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SM-YG-JYP see sales jump

September 2, 2014

(Yonhap) — South Korea’s top three entertainment agencies saw their sales jump in the first half of the year, data showed Tuesday, on the back of their efforts to expand the K-pop boom in overseas markets and reach into industries other than music and film.

Leading management agency and record label S.M. Entertainment Co. posted sales of 129.1 billion won (US$127.3 million) on a consolidated basis during the January-June period, up 20.7 percent from the 106.9 billion won tallied in 2013, according to the data compiled by market researcher FnGuide.

K-Pop boy band EXO-M perform at the 2014 Korea Times Music Festival. (The Korea Times)

Although net profit was in the red, dragged down by additional corporate taxes following an audit, the agency’s operating profit advanced 16.5 percent to 10.2 billion won over the cited period, the data showed.

South Korean boy band EXO-K performs for a television program at a gymnasium in Goyang, northwest of Seoul, on July 24, 2014. The group’s album and concert ticket sales have contributed to the rise in total sales of their management agency, S.M. Entertainment Co., during the first half of 2014. (Yonhap file photo) South Korean boy band EXO-K performs for a television program at a gymnasium in Goyang, northwest of Seoul, on July 24, 2014. The group’s album and concert ticket sales have contributed to the rise in total sales of their management agency, S.M. Entertainment Co., during the first half of 2014. (Yonhap file photo)

YG Entertainment Inc., which manages Big Bang and 2NE1 among other big names, logged sales of 77.3 billion won during the six-month period, up 28 percent compared to the 60.4 billion won the year before, according to the data. The group’s net profit added 2.1 percent to 9.8 billion won during the same period.

Sales of JYP Entertainment Corp., whose management list includes Miss A and 2PM, reached 16.5 billion won in the first half, more than three times that of last year, the data showed. The figure marked a turnaround as the agency’s numbers had been in the red for three years before last year.

Industry watchers attribute the rise in sales to the agencies’ moves to further expand their foothold in Southeast Asia and China, along with efforts to diversify their revenue sources through other business areas such as the fashion industry.

For S.M., the top agency among the three, its popular boy band EXO’s album and concert ticket sales in China and Hong Kong contributed to solid sales, while YG Entertainment took its fashion business global, getting 61 billion won in investment from an arm of the French luxury group LVMH earlier this month.

Following the positive performance records, shares of the three agencies also jumped, with SM Entertainment and JYP Entertainment climbing 34.7 percent and 20.9 percent, respectively, during the month of August. Shares of YG Entertainment soared 40.5 percent during the same period.