HYBE has a blowout quarter with an assist from Justin Bieber

Industry

Published: 03 Aug. 2022, 16:52 Updated: 03 Aug. 2022, 17:12

HYBE has a blowout quarter with an assist from Justin Bieber

Boy band BTS [SCREEN CAPTURE]

HYBE reported a record profit in the second quarter driven by album and concert ticket sales.

The entertainment company, which created, trained and managed BTS and manages Seventeen, logged 93 billion won ($71 million) in net profit during the April-to-June period, HYBE reported Wednesday. It surged by 359.3 percent compared to the previous year and beat a market consensus of 62.1 billion won, compiled by FnGuide.

Revenue and operating profit were both records.

Revenue was a consensus-beating 512.2 billion won, up 83.8 percent on year. Operating profit was 88.3 billion won, 215.3 percent greater than the same period last year but slightly under the 86.6-billion-won analyst forecast.

The record gains were a result of albums, concerts and advertisements featuring HYBE artists, which in total came in at 325.9 billion won — 64 percent of total revenue.

Albums generated 210.9 billion won of revenue. Artists signed to HYBE and its labels sold a total of 8.53 million albums during the second quarter, 42 percent of all K-pop artist albums, according to market tracker Circle Chart. Concerts generated 86 billion won.

BTS and Seventeen concerts also contributed to the sales, bringing in 85 billion won of revenue.

Revenue from content, which includes videos and online events, fell by 22.6 percent on year to 70.7 billion won. A majority of that amount came from sales of DVDs and videos, including the "Justin Bieber: Our World" (2021) documentary.

The number of people using the Weverse has been falling. Having peaked at 6.8 million monthly active users in the last quarter of 2021, the number fell by 12 percent to 6 million users in the second quarter.

"The number of Weverse users has been falling, but we believe this to be a temporary trend due to the members of BTS opening up new social media accounts in accordance with their solo activities," said Lee Kyung-jun, chief financial officer (CFO) of HYBE.

A pedestrian passes by HYBE headquarters in Yongsan, central Seoul, on June 15. [NEWS1]

HYBE shares tumbled in June when Suga said in a video that the band would be taking a break.

In a conference call, CEO Park Ji-won Park did not directly address the statement — which has been much debated but never completely explained, causing continued uncertainty in the market — only saying that the members “will be carrying out team and solo projects in a harmonious manner.”

"We are aware that many people are curious about military service for the members, but nothing has been decided yet," he added. "I would like to reiterate that they will be carrying out both solo and group activities and they will be performing together at a global concert in Busan in October. We will share details when they have been made solid."

The company formed two new girl groups — Le Sserafim and New Jeans — this year. It will be debuting a new boy band during the fourth quarter of the year in Japan.

HYBE rose 3.02 percent in trading Wednesday to 170,500, though they are still far below the 52-week high of 421,500.

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]