(old) Netmarble hits jackpot with stake investment in NCSoft, Big Hit Entertainment

[satoori]

Netmarble hits jackpot with stake investment in NCSoft, Big Hit Entertainment

 

July 16, 2020 - South Korea’s leading game developer Netmarble Corp. has emerged as a hot stock among investors after shares of NCSoft Corp. and Big Hit Entertainment Co. that it partly owned have been on a roll thanks to their solid business performance even during the COVID-19 crisis.

According to brokerage industry on Wednesday, the value of NCSoft shares owned by Netmarble reached 1.8 trillion won ($1.5 billion) based on Wednesday closing price.

Netmarble acquired NCSoft’s treasury shares in February 2015 in a gesture of support for NCSoft that was in a management feud with its largest shareholder Nexon. Netmarble bought a total 1.95 million shares of NCSoft – giving 8.9 percent ownership – for 390 billion won.

NCSoft shares were 200,000 won apiece when Netmarble purchased them but since then, the stock price has quadrupled to 930,000 won. Netmarble’s investment yield rate in NCSoft shares stands at 371.8 percent.

Although NCSoft was a late runner in the mobile game market, it has made huge success with Lineage M and Lineage 2M games based on strong intellectual property ownership. It also has emerged as one of valuable stocks at a time of the pandemic that has forced people to stay home. Along with e-commerce and online learning and work-from-home solution providers, game companies have enjoyed growth during the COVID-19 lockdown. This year alone, NCSoft shares have surged over 70 percent.

Netmarble’s equity gain is expected to grow even higher as Big Hit Entertainment, the maker behind boyband BTS, is readying to debut on Korea’s main Kospi market later this year.

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Netmarble is the second-largest shareholder of Big Hit Entertainment with 450,000 shares, equivalent to 25 percent ownership. The game developer invested 201.4 billion won to own the shares after evaluating the entertainment company’s enterprise value at about 800 billion won.

The brokerage industry estimated the current value of Big Hit Entertainment to reach at least 2 trillion won and up to 5 trillion won. The value of Big Hit Entertainment equity owned by Netmarble is projected to be worth at least 500 billion won and up to 1.3 trillion won.

Netmarble also owns 5.6 percent stakes in Kakao Games and 3.9 percent in Kakao Bank. Kakao Games is also preparing for IPO later this year, and Kakao Bank is expected to begin preparation for listing. The brokerage industry projects the equity value of Kakao Games and Kakao Bank to be minimum 300 billion won in total.

Thanks to the successful stake investments, Netmarble shares have been rallying. This month alone, its shares jumped 26 percent, outperforming the main Kospi’s 4.5 percent gain.

Shares of Netmarble closed 6.3 percent lower at 126,500 won on Wednesday after nine days of rally.

 

source: pulse

[satoori]

it's a small world... or seems everybody connected in some way or another in korea...

[Dont mind me]

In Asia all the conglomerates work together, it's just the public don't always know that. Example; for LG and Samsung working together on batteries for electric cars in US. Taiwanese company foxconn does the assembly and manufacturing some parts for Apple/Samsung. It's all assembled in the same place. So this is not something really new for me. What is interesting is that BTS always seems to either visit ( Nexon) or promote products that are linked to the company shareholders. That is some excellent use of marketing. 

[satoori]

1 hour ago, Dont mind me said:

In Asia all the conglomerates work together, it's just the public don't always know that. Example; for LG and Samsung working together on batteries for electric cars in US. Taiwanese company foxconn does the assembly and manufacturing some parts for Apple/Samsung. It's all assembled in the same place. So this is not something really new for me. What is interesting is that BTS always seems to either visit ( Nexon) or promote products that are linked to the company shareholders. That is some excellent use of marketing. 

I - o.o Actually I didn't even make the Nexon connection!! But omg yes, Jin is a huge fan of Maplestroy for years (since even before BTS) and recently BTS did a project with Maplestory - which is under Nexton!!

Lol when making this thread, I was thinking about the fact Netmarble invested in Ncsoft. And Ncsoft is recently investing into new Kpop related stuff like Mnet's new survival show and Universe (a platform similar to Bighit's Weverse)

Side note: Bang Sihyuk "Bang PD" (founder and CEO of Bighit), his brother is the CEO of Netmarble, who invested in Bighit a few years ago before BTS blew up. Netmarble is incharge of the BTS World Game and some other projects under Bighit. I believe Netmarble is now the second largest shareholders of Bighit.

Edited January 31, 2021 by satoori

[Dont mind me]

23 minutes ago, satoori said:

I - o.o Actually I didn't even make the Nexon connection!! But omg yes, Jin is a huge fan of Maplestroy for years (since even before BTS) and recently BTS did a project with Maplestory - which is under Nexton!!

Lol when making this thread, I was thinking about the fact Netmarble invested in Ncsoft. And Ncsoft is recently investing into new Kpop related stuff like Mnet's new survival show and Universe (a platform similar to Bighit's Weverse)

Side note: Bang Sihyuk "Bang PD" (founder and CEO of Bighit), his brother is the CEO of Netmarble, who invested in Bighit a few years ago before BTS blew up. Netmarble is incharge of the BTS World Game and some other projects under Bighit. I believe Netmarble is now the second largest shareholders of Bighit.

It all stays in the family, the only people who you can trust a bit more when it comes to business. 

Also, this is so much like any kdrama where the brothers/sisters all run companies linked to the mother company.

[satoori]

2 minutes ago, Dont mind me said:

It all stays in the family, the only people who you can trust a bit more when it comes to business. 

Also, this is so much like any kdrama where the brothers/sisters all run companies linked to the mother company.

true, family is best

lol agree XD

wild prediction - with navar giving vlive to weverse (transition expected to take about a year) i wouldn't be surprised to see weverse acquire universe in the future too if universe can't survive alone..

[Dont mind me]

I don't think they will acquire universe, at the moment they don't seem to be a competitor and the board of BH or their stakeholders wouldn't approve another buyout or merger anytime soon. My guess is they will increase their market share on IP and increase their presence with other entertainment tech companies. It's a much easier way to increase revenue, without buying shares. 

[satoori]

1 hour ago, Dont mind me said:

I don't think they will acquire universe, at the moment they don't seem to be a competitor and the board of BH or their stakeholders wouldn't approve another buyout or merger anytime soon. My guess is they will increase their market share on IP and increase their presence with other entertainment tech companies. It's a much easier way to increase revenue, without buying shares. 

if it happen, i don't think it would be soon. it would be after some years. 4-5 or more.

but i agree with the rest of your comment.

[Dont mind me]

24 minutes ago, satoori said:

if it happen, i don't think it would be soon. it would be after some years. 4-5 or more.

but i agree with the rest of your comment.

I don't know if they will be the same in 5 years. Somehow I have the feeling that BH is taking a note out of western entertainment companies or following Sony style in regards to branching out to more technology based enterprise. 

Also, didn't think I would have chat about business in a K-pop forum, but I like your comments on these matters. Other posters on twitter seem so weird when it comes to acknowledging that BH or YG are corporation and need to make profit outside of their fav bands. 

[satoori]

Just now, Dont mind me said:

I don't know if they will be the same in 5 years. Somehow I have the feeling that BH is taking a note out of western entertainment companies or following Sony style in regards to branching out to more technology based enterprise. 

Also, didn't think I would have chat about business in a K-pop forum, but I like your comments on these matters. Other posters on twitter seem so weird when it comes to acknowledging that BH or YG are corporation and need to make profit outside of their fav bands. 

Sony? hmm, you have a point. That actually make sense too!

Lol thanks^^ ...yea twitter is a whole a** mess hahaha. It's difficult having conversations. 

 

[Dont mind me]

1 minute ago, satoori said:

Sony? hmm, you have a point. That actually make sense too!

Lol thanks^^ ...yea twitter is a whole a** mess hahaha. It's difficult having conversations. 

 

Yup, I have never met anyone with zero business background have argument with business/econ majors who are kindly trying to explain what is going on. Such a mess right now for absolutely no good reason. 

[Dont mind me]

Even saw one post don't know if it was on yours or Reddit, but someone was claiming that all vlive recording would be destroyed in the transfer process I had no words, so I just shut the app and went to watch something else. 

[satoori]

15 minutes ago, Dont mind me said:

Yup, I have never met anyone with zero business background have argument with business/econ majors who are kindly trying to explain what is going on. Such a mess right now for absolutely no good reason. 

Unfortunately, there's a lot of people putting their personal feelings about petty fanwars and more first...instead of actually listening and being rationale.

13 minutes ago, Dont mind me said:

Even saw one post don't know if it was on yours or Reddit, but someone was claiming that all vlive recording would be destroyed in the transfer process I had no words, so I just shut the app and went to watch something else. 

Yea sometimes it's best to step away lol

[Dont mind me]

Yeah I agree, not worth having a stupid debate. On the upside of this news, SM will be vulnerable for the foreseeable future. Ever since I got into K-pop I really started disliking the way that company does business and how it copied that Japanese guy Johnny and their overuse of fan service. It is because of this business model that most fans have this weird borderline obsession with their groups. 

Thanks for the points by the way, I assuming it was you

[satoori]

3 minutes ago, Dont mind me said:

Yeah I agree, not worth having a stupid debate. On the upside of this news, SM will be vulnerable for the foreseeable future. Ever since I got into K-pop I really started disliking the way that company does business and how it copied that Japanese guy Johnny and their overuse of fan service. It is because of this business model that most fans have this weird borderline obsession with their groups. 

Thanks for the points by the way, I assuming it was you

SM is always up to something. e.g. Naver invested in SM last year too. "Beyond Live", a concert streaming service.  Not sure how well that's working out considering Naver is now moving on to Bighit. But we shall see.

Yea Lee Sooman (founder of SM) has always been influenced by Jpop industry. He's not afraid to admit either. 

You're welcome 

[Dont mind me]

8 minutes ago, satoori said:

SM is always up to something. e.g. Naver invested in SM last year too. "Beyond Live", a concert streaming service.  Not sure how well that's working out considering Naver is now moving on to Bighit. But we shall see.

Yea Lee Sooman (founder of SM) has always been influenced by Jpop industry. He's not afraid to admit either. 

You're welcome 

Aaah thanks

I think the reason why naver changed course this year is because BH used an outside company for their live streams and they where able to connect and store more data perfectly. For this reason alone, their capabilities to actually being innovative and reaching outside the usual Korean companies. I believe this is why naver started working with bighit more.

https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/bts-label-big-hit-entertainment-inks-global-deal-with-video-steaming-firm-kiswe-whose-tech-is-used-by-the-nba-mls-and-pga-tour/

[satoori]

1 minute ago, Dont mind me said:

Aaah thanks

I think the reason why naver changed course this year is because BH used an outside company for their live streams and they where able to connect and store more data perfectly. For this reason alone, their capabilities to actually being innovative and reaching outside the usual Korean companies. I believe this is why naver started working with bighit more.

https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/bts-label-big-hit-entertainment-inks-global-deal-with-video-steaming-firm-kiswe-whose-tech-is-used-by-the-nba-mls-and-pga-tour/

True, the experience on Kwise was so much better then Vlive. It would be awesome if Kwise, Vlive (Naver) and Weverse (Bighit) could work to gether on developing the new platform. 

[Dont mind me]

34 minutes ago, satoori said:

True, the experience on Kwise was so much better then Vlive. It would be awesome if Kwise, Vlive (Naver) and Weverse (Bighit) could work to gether on developing the new platform. 

I think that is the plan, my gut feeling is they are using both vlive and weverse as steppingstone and their followers. It is easier to be key player in the market if the other companies use your platform and you don't have to rely on your company followers alone.

[Dont mind me]

17 minutes ago, Dont mind me said:

I think that is the plan, my gut feeling is they are using both vlive and weverse as steppingstone and their followers. It is easier to be key player in the market if the other companies use your platform and you don't have to rely on your company followers alone.

Haha, you are kind with your points. Much appreciated

Just finished work, going to catch some sleep. Many thanks for this convo, it's was very informative for me.  I hope you have a nice evening of morning. 

[satoori]

24 minutes ago, Dont mind me said:

Haha, you are kind with your points. Much appreciated

Just finished work, going to catch some sleep. Many thanks for this convo, it's was very informative for me.  I hope you have a nice evening of morning. 

Good night, sleep well