BTS fans gripped by hot IPO of band’s music label Big Hit Entertainment, all hoping to secure at least one share

Fans of the Billboard chart-topping K-pop group are putting in bids, some of them big, for a stake in the IPO of BTS’ music label, Big Hit Entertainment

They know they will be lucky to bag even one share apiece given how oversubscribed the listing is, but want them to complete their memorabilia collections

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The IPO of Big Hit Entertainment will make multimilionaires of the seven BTS members, who were given shares ahead of the label’s listing, and fans of the K-pop band want a piece of the action too –not to get rich, but as keepsakes or entry tickets to shareholders’ meetings where the band might be present. Photo: AFP

Published: 10:15pm, 25 Sep 2020Updated: 2:57am, 26 Sep 2020

Kim Eun-hee wants to complete her collection of memorabilia of South Korean boy band BTS by bidding more than US$120,000 to buy shares in the group’s music label Big Hit Entertainment – South Korea’s hottest IPO.

Fervour is building among South Korean BTS fans to secure at least one share of the K-pop band’s label with orders for next month’s listing having opened this week.

“I’m adding my support to BTS by buying shares – it will add to my collection,” the 51 year-old said in the BTS-themed cafe she runs in Seoul, which is filled with BTS merchandise.

Big Hit Entertainment is betting that going public will be a smash hit riding on the success of the seven-member band, which has become the first South Korean group to reach No 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 singles chart with their recent single Dynamite .

There is already an insatiable demand for new share listings from South Korean retail investors – known as “ants” – because government stimulus efforts to bolster the economy after the coronavirus crisis have flooded markets with cash.