CJ ENM will acquire SM Entertainment, a leading K-pop company in Korea.

According to the investment banking (IB) industry on the 21st, CJ ENM will sign a contract to acquire SM Entertainment as early as the 22nd and announce the details. The transaction target is the 18.73% stake held by producer Lee Soo-man. CJ ENM has valued 100% of SM Entertainment's stock at 3 to 4 trillion won and decided to purchase Chairman Lee's shares for 600 to 700 billion won.

In return for becoming the largest shareholder of SM Entertainment, CJ ENM will allow producer Lee Soo-man to continue in his role as the head of the company as he is now. Producer Lee will be in charge of the overall operation of SM Entertainment's content business going forward. Whether to split CJ ENM's music business division and merge it with SM Entertainment is still being discussed by both parties. Furthermore, a plan where producer Lee transfers the largest shareholder status to CJ ENM but continuously holds a portion of the shares is also being considered.

These are English translations of articles from our GTTOUR Japanese website.