이 기사는 2021년 06월 30일 07시39분 thebell에 표출된 기사입니다

STIC Investments has sold its remaining shares in HYBE, the entertainment company behind the global star BTS, in a block transaction worth more than 800 billion won ($707.5 million), removing a stock overhang.

The sale received strong interest from domestic and overseas institutional investors, with the price set at 284,000 won, a 9% discount to the stock’s closing price on Monday, according a regulatory filing on Tuesday.

STIC invested 102 billion won in HYBE, formerly Big Hit Entertainment, in 2018 at a valuation of 800 billion won. The firm held 2,866,703 shares or an 8% stake in the company at the end of March, which made it the third largest shareholder of HYBE after chairman Bang Si-hyuk (34.7%) and gaming company Netmarble (19.9%).

Since HYBE’s stock market debut in October 2020, there have been concerns about the potential downside that could result from STIC’s exit from the company. This so-called overhang weighed HYBE’s stock price. STIC sold 196,177 shares in the company shortly after the listing, with an additional 400,000 shares sold in the open market in December.

The block trade is likely to generate a return of over 13 times invested capital for STIC. HYBE stock recently hit a new high on the back of the release of BTS’s new single called ‘Butter’ and the company’s shift in focus to the content platform business. Its market capitalization reached about 11.8 trillion won as of Monday’s closing price.

Analysts expect the block sale will have little impact on HYBE’s stock price as its fundamentals have improved. Some said STIC’s share sale may have been reflected in the recent steep rise in the company’s shares.

BTS’s new track, which topped the Billboard Top 100 chart for five straight weeks, is likely to help limit the decline in the company’s shares in the short term. Citigroup Global Markets Securities, which managed the sale, apparently kept this in mind when determining the timing of the sale.

In the mid to long-term, the stock’s movement could be impacted by who bought shares from STIC. “STIC’s sale via a block deal is widely expected and a positive for HYBE shares as it removed a stock overhang. Key to watch is how many of the shares unloaded by STIC have been bought by global long money funds,” an analyst said. (Reporting by Pil-woo Choi)