HYBE Shares Fall on YG Plus Sale, SM Entertainment Stock Slips After Failed EXO Mediation

The stock prices of 2 K-pop giants, HYBE and SM Entertainment, suffered steep losses successful a week successful which fewer euphony stocks mustered adjacent tiny gains. 

In the week ended Friday (Sept. 26), HYBE’s banal fell 7.5% to 268,500 KRW ($190.53) amid a broader monthly downturn of astir 9%. The company’s laminitis and chairman, Bang Si-hyuk, is presently facing a securities litigation probe. Additionally, connected Tuesday (Sept. 23), HYBE sold its stake successful YG Entertainment’s YG Plus. 

While HYBE maintains vulnerability to YG Plus done the 10.2% involvement owned by HYBE subsidiary Weverse, the disposal of its 4.8 cardinal shares worthy a full of 38.22 cardinal KRW ($27 million) volition assistance enactment up the company’s finances. HYBE’s operating nett rebounded successful the 2nd quarter, but successful 2024, the institution reported that currency travel from operating activities was astatine its lowest since the COVID-19 pandemic began successful 2020. HYBE held 412 cardinal KRW ($292 billion) successful currency and currency equivalents astatine the extremity of 2024, an betterment from 2023 but little than successful some 2021 and 2022. 

SM Entertainment fared adjacent worse than HYBE, falling 13.9% to 131,700 KRW ($93.46) aft the company’s archetypal court-led mediation with 3 members of the radical EXO failed to resoluteness a $430,000 declaration dispute. The artists claimed past twelvemonth that they were being overcharged by SM for the organisation of music. 

Despite their caller struggles, the 2 K-pop companies are among the best-performing euphony stocks successful 2025. Year to date, SM Entertainment is up 81.4% — third-best down Netease Cloud Music (134.2%) and Tencent Music Entertainment (111.9%) — and HYBE has gained 33.6%. 

The Billboard Global Music Index (BGMI) fell 2.1% to 3,034.75 this week, lowering its year-to-date summation to 40.8%. That marked the archetypal diminution successful 4 weeks and conscionable the sixth losing week successful the 2nd fractional of the year. Only 2 stocks posted gains for the week, portion 16 mislaid worth and 1 was unchanged. 

Global markets were mixed this week arsenic investors weighed the harm that could originate from a imaginable federal authorities shutdown successful the U.S. The Nasdaq composite scale fell 0.7% to 22,484.07 aft closing the erstwhile week astatine an all-time high. The S&P 500 ended a three-week winning streak, closing down 0.3% to 6,643.70. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 roseate 0.7%. South Korea’s KOSPI composite scale slid 1.7% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index roseate 0.2%.

Universal Music Group had the week’s largest gain, rising 2% to 24.00 euros ($28.09). Madison Square Garden Entertainment, which improved 0.3% to $45.29, was the week’s lone different euphony banal successful affirmative territory.

Live Nation fell 1.2% to $161.79, bringing its two-week diminution to 6.9%. Live Nation and Ticketmaster were sued by the U.S. Department of Justice connected Sept. 18 implicit allegedly violating the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act and engaging successful “systemic unfair and deceptive practices,” according to the lawsuit. The banal received bully quality earlier successful the week, however, erstwhile Seaport Global increased its terms people to $190 from $170 and maintained its “buy” rating. 

Music streaming companies were among the week’s biggest losers. Tencent Music Entertainment fell 5.9%, Anghami slipped 4.8%, Netease Cloud Music dropped 4.4% and Spotify, the BGMI’s astir invaluable company, dipped 2.5%.

Another streaming company, LiveOne, executed a 10-to-1 reverse banal divided connected Friday (Sept. 26) that allowed it to conscionable the Nasdaq exchange’s minimum bid request of $1 per share. After accounting for the split, LiveOne’s stock terms fell 5.5% to $4.82, deepening its year-to-date nonaccomplishment to 65.1%. 

iHeartMedia had the second-largest diminution of the week, falling 10.6% to $2.71. Despite the banal suffering its archetypal diminution successful 3 weeks, iHeartMedia shares person risen 69.4% implicit the past sev...