이 기사는 2021년 05월 03일 07:41 thebell 에 표출된 기사입니다.

South Korea’s media company J Contentree has strengthened its control over its content distribution subsidiary JTBC Studios.

J Contentree will receive a 6.4% stake in JTBC Studios from its parent JoongAng Holdings through a rights offering, industry sources said on Thursday.

This investment is aimed at strengthening influence on the company and increasing efficiency. JTBC Studios raised total 400 billion won ($360 million) from Praxis Capital and Tencent in a deal which valued the company at 1.2 trillion won.

Praxis Capital became the second largest shareholder of JTBC Studios with a 19% stake. J Contentree has seemingly increased its stake in JTBC Studios to defend its managerial rights as the large-scale fundraising from outside investors will lead to a share dilution.

J Contentree also merged its wholly-owned subsidiary Joins JoongAng, a media contents company which has showed mediocre performance over the last two years.

Separately, J Contentree issued 100 billion won worth of zero-coupon convertible bonds to private equity firm JKL Partners.

Megabox JoongAng, which is owned by J Contentree, was hit hard by the pandemic last year, like other movie theaters around the country. It recorded an operating loss of 68.2 billion on revenue of 104.5 billion won, which was down 68% year-on-year.

Instead, the value of JTBC Studios has sharply increased. JKL Partners has made the latest investment to capitalize on J Contentree’s competitiveness in contents amid increasing interests of intellectual property. (Reporting by Se-hun Jo)