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Korea Herald
20-02-2025
- Business
- Korea Herald
K-pop stocks rally on hopes of China lifting cultural ban
Shares of Korean entertainment companies, including top three K-pop powerhouses Hybe, JYP Entertainment and SM Entertainment, surged Thursday, buoyed by the prospect that China could lift its de facto ban on Korean cultural content. Shares of Hybe, the K-pop giant behind BTS, reached a new 52-week high of 263,000 won ($183) during intraday trading. Its share price stood at 248,000 won as of 1:30 p.m., gaining 1.22 percent from the previous trading day. SM Entertainment shares reached 99,700 won, up 3.32 percent. Shares of YG Entertainment and JYP Entertainment, rose by 11.47 percent and 0.62 percent, respectively. The three stocks all recorded 52-week highs on Thursday. YG Plus, which is in charge of music distribution and intellectual property licensing for YG Entertainment, likewise saw its shares rising by 21.8 percent as of 1:30 p.m. The anticipation also pushed a rally of production company shares, as investors bet that companies would benefit from content rights sales to China. Shares of A Story, behind hit TV series 'Extraordinary Attorney Woo,' hit the upper circuit limit of 30 percent, surging to 9,360 won. Shares of Studio Dragon rose by 19.28 percent, reaching a 52-week high of 49,800 won as of 1:30 p.m. Entertainment mogul CJ ENM's shares inched up by 8.9 percent to 61,200 won. According to a local news report, the Chinese government plans to lift its blanket ban on Korean entertainment content. Though the Chinese government has never officially acknowledged the ban's existence, the sanction is assessed to have been imposed as part of economic retaliation following Korea's decision to deploy a US Terminal High Altitude Area Defense antimissile system on its soil in 2016. The news report quoted a senior official from the China-Asia Pacific Cooperation Center, a government body involved in preparing for the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summits, saying the country plans to open borders to cultural exchanges with Korea by dispatching a delegation to the country next month. The report suggested a full reopening could come in May at the earliest. 'This is the time when the possibility of a ban lift is the highest in terms of the political and economic circumstances,' Shinhan Securities analyst Ji In-hae said. "But as it has been a while (since Korea-China ties were cut off), the key intellectual properties of entertainment companies have not yet fully experienced the Chinese market. We cannot yet project which company will benefit the most from the lifting of the ban.'
Yahoo
13-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Donald Trump's tariffs appear to be benefitting an unexpected industry: K-Pop
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. When US president Donald Trump imposed a 25% tariff on foreign steel earlier this month, it was done with the stated aim of boosting the US's domestic economy, but the move appears to be having the unintended consequence of boosting South Korea's turbulent pop industry. As reported by The Guardian and Korea Times, shares in the country's four major K-Pop companies – SM, YG, HYBE and JYP Entertainment – have hit 52-week highs in the past few days, which analysts suggest is fuelled by investors seeing the K-Pop industry as a safe bet amidst the threat of a looming trade war. To put it in somewhat over-simplified terms, tariffs affect the import and export of material goods, making them a potentially risky investment right now, but they don't affect industries like entertainment. To point out a rather obvious fact, you don't need steel to construct a K-Pop band. There are a few other factors at play too. The K-Pop industry is recovering from a year of weak performance caused by a variety of factors including the forced hiatus of boy band BTS, whilst its members fulfilled their military service, and contract wrangling surrounding the members of girl group Blackpink. 'The entertainment sector stands to gain significantly from the return of major IPs like BTS and Blackpink, as well as minimal impact from US tariffs,' Shinhan Investment and Securities researcher Ji In-hae told the Korea Times. There are also signs of renewed cultural ties between South Korea and China, the latter of which has recently relaxed visa rules for South Korean visitors. South Korea's economy is heavily reliant on exports, and products such as semi-conductors and vehicles are likely to be hit hard by US tariffs. K-Pop remains one of South Korea's most important cultural exports, generating more than $900m in 2023, a rise of over a third year-on-year, according to the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute.
