K-pop sex scandal fallout sees Park Jin-young of JYP become wealthiest talent agency boss
- Value of his shares in JYP Entertainment – which manages TWICE – hit 192 billion won, as Lee Soo-man’s SM Entertainment shares reach 181 billion won
Park Jin-young, a K-pop star and the head of JYP Entertainment – home to the nine-member girl group TWICE – was named the wealthiest talent agency owner by stock value on Sunday.
Lee Soo-man, the former No 1, who owns SM Entertainment, was ranked second.
The value of Park’s JYP shares reached 192.2 billion won (US$169.1 million) last Thursday, according to data released by Chaebul.com, which tracks South Korean conglomerates. Park owns 17.8 per cent of all JYP shares.
The total value of Park’s shares marks an increase of 1.9 billion won compared with the value at end of 2018.
The data showed that value of Lee’s SM shares stood at 181.8 billion won last Thursday – down 21.1 per cent since the end of 2018.
The change in the talent agency owner rankings follows the far-reaching K-pop sex scandal involving a number of K-pop stars, including Seungri – once part of YG Entertainment’s boy band, Big Bang before he retired from show business – which has hammered the stocks of major entertainment companies, including YG.
JYP was one of the three major entertainment firms least affected by the scandal.
SM, which manages K-pop groups such as EXO and Girls’ Generation, had long maintained its top position in the entertainment industry before JYP claimed the No 1 position in August last year – a move driven mainly by the success of TWICE.