Chorokbaem Media Acquires YG KPLUS... "400 Artists, Mammoth-scale K-Entertainment Company Emerges"

[Asia Economy Reporter Jang Hyowon] Chorokbaem Media announced on the 26th that it has signed a contract to acquire a 50% stake and management rights from YG KPLUS through a third-party allotment paid-in capital increase. The acquisition amount is 7 billion KRW.

With this acquisition, Chorokbaem Media will leap forward as the largest agency in Korea, holding about 400 artists active in various fields including singers, actors, entertainers, announcers, and models, including its subsidiaries ‘Hook Entertainment (Lee Seung-gi, Lee Seo-jin, Youn Yuh-jung, Park Min-young, etc.)’ and ‘Sky E&M (Lee Young-ja, Kim Sook, Jang Yoon-jung, Jang Dong-min, Yoo Se-yoon, etc.)’. The company explained that it plans to build various revenue models based on the IP of its affiliated artists and accelerate the expansion of its business portfolio.

The acquired YG KPLUS is one of Korea’s leading model management companies, alongside ‘Esteem’, dominating the Korean fashion model industry. It has rich experience and know-how in various fields such as fashion show planning and production, media content production, and model academies. Its representative affiliated artists include models ‘Bae Yoon-young’, ‘Chloe Oh’, ‘Yoo Ji-ae’, ‘Kim Seol-hee’, ‘Hyebak’, and ‘Park Kyung-jin’.

In particular, YG KPLUS recently signed an exclusive contract with the virtual human ‘Han Yu-a’, created by ‘Smilegate’, and has attracted much attention by expanding activities in various areas such as broadcasting, YouTube, performances, advertisements, fashion, and beauty. On the 24th, it also signed a business agreement (MOU) with the blockchain company ‘MetaKongz’, accelerating the launch of new business models starting with NFTs. YG KPLUS explained that this will maximize synergy in the company’s future digital new media business development.

A Chorokbaem Media official said, “We expect that the newly acquired YG KPLUS will create strong synergy with Chorokbaem Media’s media content IP business in the future,” adding, “By securing a large number of exclusive artists, we are confident that we can enhance our content production capabilities in the fashion and beauty sectors, improve competitiveness compared to other companies, and seize market opportunities.”

Since its establishment, Chorokbaem Media has established itself as a leading content production company in Korea by presenting some of the most influential contemporary dramas such as ‘My Liberation Notes’, ‘One Day’, ‘My Mister’, ‘Memories of the Alhambra’, ‘High Kick Through the Roof’, and ‘Jumong’. Since last year, it has been actively expanding into various business areas such as NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens), metaverse, e-commerce, webtoons, and web novels based on its owned content and artist IP.