BTS enter stock market, shares jump, band members become multi-millionaires

Management company Big Hit Entertainment behind the K-pop boy band BTS has scored a huge hit on the country’s stock market on their first day of trading Wednesday - the shares started life on the Seoul market at 270,000 won ($US253), compared with an initial public offering price of 135,000 won last month. The stocks have climbed 30% to 351,000 won, so the company is now valued at almost 10 trillion won ($US8.5bn), Bloomberg reports. Band members’ personal wealth will also skyrocket after they were each given more than 68,000 shares in August, which means that BTS members are multi-millionaires now, with each owning shares worth 24 billion won (US$20.94 million), SCMP reports. The rise of stock has been added by reports that South Korea’s military recruitment agency was considering allowing pop and other celebrities to defer their national service. South Korea requires all able-bodied men aged between 18 and 28 to serve in the military for almost two years to defend the country against security threats from the nuclear-armed North. BTS’s 27-year old singer Jin will have to report for duty by the end of 2021, with the other six members, born between 1993 and 1997, following suit in the coming years.