Shares of Hybe, the South Korean entertainment agency, hit a four-year high on Monday as BTS announced a world tour last week. The shares rose as much as 9.5% after multiple brokerages reportedly upgraded their target prices on Hybe stock following the announcement, CNBC reported.
The gain in Hybe share price brought cheers to investors, adding more than 1 trillion South Korean won ($677 million) to the market value of the company.
This was the highest level that Hybe’s market value was in since November 2021, according to CNBC.
Shares of Hybe ended 8.92% higher, clocking their highest levels since December 2021 after the K-Pop agency unveiled world tour plans for boy band BTS.
Why did Hybe share prices rise?
The rally in Hybe shares come after the entertainment agency that manages BTS announced on 14 January that the K-pop boy band will embark on a world tour spanning 2026 and 2027.
On the same day, following the announcement, Nomura upgraded its target price on the stock to 410,000 won from 354,000 won, backing its decision up by the “larger than expected” scale of the BTS world tour.
“The scale of the world tour (79 shows) scheduled for the fifth album is 27% bigger than that of the previous cycle…the announced scale exceeds investors’ expectation for about 65 tours,” wrote analysts Angela Hong and Won Kang, according to CNBC.
BTS, the K-pop band comprising seven members, is set to perform 79 shows across 23 countries in the first part of the tour, kicking it off in Seoul on 9 April.
“Higher-margin regions,” including North America and Europe, will see 44% of the shows being held, which would translate into better profitability, as per the analysts cited by CNBC.
HSBC in a 13 January note shared similar views, saying that while K-pop show ticket prices remain relatively low in South Korea and Japan, they tend to rise as artists scale up their overseas tours. “In particular, North America and Europe command structurally higher ticket prices, making scale expansion in these regions increasingly important.”
More upside coming?
The announcement also said that more tours will be added later, with shows in cities in Japan and the Middle East. This would support more upside to the earnings of Hybe in 2027, if these shows materialise, according to Nomura.
Meanwhile, The Korea Economic Daily on Monday said that attendance estimates for the BTS concerts were revised up sharply, with total audiences this year projected at around 4.5 million.
