HYBE beats estimates on strong concert, album sales in Q3

HYBE's headquarters in Yongsan District, central Seoul [YONHAP]

HYBE, a K-pop management agency behind BTS, reported better-than-expected earnings for the third quarter on the back of strong album and concert revenue.

The entertainment powerhouse said on Thursday that it logged its third-quarter net profit of 98.6 billion won ($73.3 million), up 5.9 percent from a year earlier, according to a regulatory filing.

HYBE posted 72.7 billion won in operating profit for the three months ending in September, compared with 60.6 billion won a year ago, with sales growing 20.7 percent to 537.9 billion won.

Albums and concert ticket revenue rose 104.4 percent and 83.9 percent on-year, respectively.

The earnings exceeded market expectations. The average estimate of net profit by analysts stood at 65.2 billion won, according to a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency.

BY PARK EUN-JEE, YONHAP [park.eunjee@joongang.co.kr]