National Pension Service sells half of its shares in SM Entertainment

The National Pension Service [NEWS1]

The National Pension Service (NPS) sold half of its shares in SM Entertainment last month amid management disputes in the entertainment agency, it disclosed Friday.

NPS now owns 4.32 percent or 1.02 million shares of the agency, compared to the 8.96 percent, 2.13 million shares from August 2022.

NPS sold 295,435 shares on the same day Kakao announced that it is buying 9.05 percent of the newly-issued shares on Feb. 7 and sold another 321,772 shares on Feb. 9.

After HYBE announced its plans to purchase 14.8 percent of SM Entertainment’s shares from its founder Lee Soo-man on Feb. 10, NPS sold 240,993 shares on Feb. 13 and 246,313 shares on Feb. 21, after the stock price rose to over 120,000 won ($92).

It is expected that the pension fund achieved great returns from the sale as SM shares remained in the 50,000 won to 60,000 won range back in August when the NPS purchased a fresh portion of SM Entertainment stocks. But the shares rose to 90,100 won on Feb. 09 and further to 123,500 won on Feb. 21.

The NPS will have its voting rights for the 8.96 percent holding at this month's annual general meeting because the voting right representation at the meeting is based on the list of stocks owned in December last year.

BY CHO YONG-JUN [cho.yongjun1@joongang.co.kr]