SM Entertainment chief tops list of stock-rich celebrities

Lee Soo-man, the chief executive of S.M. Entertainment, introduces a new entertainment project at COEX in Seoul on Jan. 27, 2016.

SEOUL, (Yonhap) — Lee Soo-man, the chairman of S.M. Entertainment Co., rose to the first place in the list of South Korea’s stock-rich celebrities this year, as his management agency and record labels continued to post brisk performance, data showed Sunday.

The stock assets by the K-pop entertainment mogul were estimated to be 180.1 billion won (US$151.8 million) as of June 3, slipping 1.3 percent from Jan. 2, according to the data compiled by corporate tracker Chaebul.com.

Yang Hyun-suk, the chief of YG Entertainment Inc., came next with 155.8 billion won, widening the gap between Lee as his assets dropped 11.9 percent during the period.

Yang had briefly taken the top spot last year, but he slipped to second place after YG Entertainment’s shares listed on the secondary KOSDAQ market remained sluggish this year.

YG Entertainment is one of the top three record companies in South Korea, featuring big-name K-pop stars including Psy, Big Bang and 2NE1.

Bae Yong-joon, a major shareholder of another management agency Keyeast Co., took third place with 63.1 billion won, which fell 4 percent over the cited period.

Bae gained huge popularity across Asia for his role in the hit 2002 drama series “Winter Sonata,” and has been involved in the management business.

The combined assets by the nation’s 18 stock-rich celebrities reached 532.1 billion won as of June 3, down 10.9 percent from the beginning of this year, Chaebul.com said.