"Trusting Park Jin-young, 100 More Shares"... Attention Focused on JYP's 5 Billion 'Jupjup' Purchase

Bought 5 Billion KRW Worth of JYP Shares After 20% Drop Early This Year

Park Jin-young, the largest shareholder and Chief Operating Officer (COO) in charge of creativity at JYP Entertainment, has purchased an additional 5 billion KRW worth of company shares.

According to the Financial Supervisory Service's electronic disclosure system on the 18th, Park Jin-young bought 60,200 shares of JYP Entertainment on the open market over two days starting the previous day. The purchase amount was 5 billion KRW, with an average purchase price of about 83,000 KRW per share. As a result, Park Jin-young's stake increased by 0.15 percentage points from 15.22% to 15.37%.

Park Jin-young [Photo by Yonhap News]

The stock price of JYP Entertainment has been on a downward trend since reaching a peak of 146,600 KRW at the end of July last year. After maintaining the 100,000 KRW per share level, the stock price plunged 17.7% starting from the 12th, which the industry views as the reason Park Jin-young started buying at a low price. Immediately after the announcement of Park’s additional purchase, the stock price jumped to 85,400 KRW but closed at 82,600 KRW, down 0.36% from the previous day, continuing the downward trend.

Following the disclosure, investors posted comments on the stock board such as "I bought 100 more shares trusting Park Jin-young," "Is Park Jin-young also stuck with losses?" "Park Jin-young must think the current stock price is undervalued," "He has loyalty," and "Please buy a little more, Park Jin-young."

The poor performance of JYP Entertainment’s affiliated idol groups has significantly impacted the stock price. The initial sales volume (first-week sales) of the new album released by the group ITZY on the 8th was 320,000 copies, less than half of the previous album’s initial sales of 820,000 copies. With a decrease in Chinese group purchases, which account for a significant portion of the company’s album sales, there are also forecasts that the fourth-quarter operating profit (estimated at 45.8 billion KRW) will fall short of the market consensus (50.7 billion KRW).

However, some analysts in the securities industry believe the market’s concerns are excessive. Lee Hwa-jung, a researcher at NH Investment & Securities, said, "Although the initial sales trends of Stray Kids, ITZY, and NMIXX are disappointing, it is premature to judge the artists’ growth phase based solely on initial sales performance." She added, "In the case of Stray Kids, although the initial sales were sluggish, signals of new fandom inflow have been confirmed in subsequent sales trends, and growth from performances and digital music outside of album sales remains valid."

Lee Ki-hoon, a researcher at Hana Securities, also commented, "Regarding the decrease in Chinese group purchases, the proportion of album exports to China has dropped to 12% compared to last year, so we are in the process of confirming the end of negative factors." He added, "From a valuation perspective, the current price is very attractive for investment."

Park Jin-young stated on November 19 last year during a live broadcast on the economic YouTube channel 'Shuka World' that it was the "optimal time to buy" the company’s stock. He said, "If I have cash, I buy unconditionally." He also said, "I believe in three years, five years from now," and "I trust the company’s system and the business we will be running, as well as the people affiliated with us." On the day of the broadcast, JYP Entertainment’s stock price was 90,300 KRW, right after a sharp drop caused by the poor initial sales performance of the group Stray Kids. The stock price has continued to decline since then, recording 82,600 KRW as of the 18th.