It’s official: HYBE has signed an agreement with SM Entertainment founder Lee Soo Man to become the company’s largest shareholder.
On February 10, HYBE officially confirmed the acquisition of a 14.8% stake in SM Entertainment from Lee Soo Man for 422.8 billion won (about 334.3 million U.S. dollars).
Before the transaction, Li Xiuman held 18.46% of SM Entertainment’s shares and became the company’s largest shareholder.Earlier this week, Kakao became second largest Become a shareholder after acquiring 9.05% of the company: Lee Soo Man denounced the move as illegal and is taking legal action against it.
Last week, SM Entertainment’s current CEO Lee Sung-soo (Lee Soo-man’s nephew) and COO Tak Young Jun announced their vision for a new reorganization called “SM 3.0,” which would involve severing ties with SM Entertainment’s longtime producer Lee Soo-man. A few days later, Kakao bought a stake in the company. Li Xiuman then flew back to South Korea and announced that he would take legal action against SM Entertainment, accusing SM Entertainment of violating commercial laws and illegally issuing new company shares and convertible bonds without the consent of the major shareholder (Li Xiuman). Manage disputes.
In addition to the deal with Lee Soo Man, HYBE also announced plans to acquire additional shares of SM Entertainment from minority shareholders, which will further increase its stake in the company.
source(1)
How did this article make you feel?