Share price of production company behind 'Reborn Rich' surge

Posters featuring characters portrayed by Song Joong-ki left, and Lee Sung-min from the hit JTBC drama series ″Reborn Rich″ [JTBC]

The viewership of JTBC drama series "Reborn Rich" is through the roof, and so is the share price of its production company Raemong Raein.

The 14th episode of the series recorded a 24.9 percent viewersip rating when it aired last Sunday, according to Nielson Ratings Korea. It marked the second highest ever for a cable channel series since "The World of the Married" (2020), which garnered 28.4 percent, also by JTBC.

As of 10:52 a.m. on Wednesday, Raemong Raein traded at 27,000 won ($20.96), 1.31 percent higher than the previous day but 17.9 percent higher than Nov. 17, the day before the first episode aired, when it closed at 22,900 won.

The show, which started airing at Nov. 18, surpassed 10.8 percent in viewership rating after just three episodes, stealing the spot for the highest viewership ratings for a show this year. It surpassed 19.4 percent by episode 8. The previous record, which was 17.5 percent, was held by the legal drama series "Extraordinary Attorney Woo," which ran on local cable channel ENA from August to June.

"Reborn Rich" was created from the web novel series of the same on Munpia, which was turned into a webtoon on Naver Webtoon last September. Naver bought 36 percent shares of Munpia at 108.2 billion won last February, making it the largest shareholder with 56 percent.

Raemong Raein invested 17.6 billion won into the production of the series and SLL, the co-producer, invested 17.6 billion won.

BY LEE JAE-LIM [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]