YG's share price surges 6.3% on news of Blackpink’s album release, concert 

Shares of major K-pop label YG Entertainment Inc. finished Wednesday's trade 6% higher at 48,950 won ($37.52) a share, on news of Blackpink’s upcoming album release slated for August and a large-scale world tour planned for later this year. 

In intra-day trade, YG stocks rose 10% from the day before to 50,700 won ($38.76) per share. 

SM Entertainment Co. and Hybe Co. stocks climbed 2-4% during the day.

The quartet’s management agency announced in a press release that the group is in the final stage of recording a new album. 

Blackpink will also film a music video for the new album this month. 

The group will hold the largest-ever world tour by female K-pop idols by the year's end, the press release added. 

Blackpink sold 1.87 million albums last year, accounting for 72% of YG's total album sales.

YG Entertainment’s operating profit for the last quarter of 2021 and the first quarter of this year have both slid compared to the same quarters in previous years. 

The figure is expected to rebound from the second quarter of this year. 

The projected operating profit of YG Entertainment stands at 10.8 billion won for the second quarter and 22.6 billion won for the third quarter of this year, according to FnGuide. Those figures are up 19.34% and 143.15%, respectively, from the same quarters last year. 

“The momentum will be the greatest in the third quarter when Blackpink’s comeback and the world tour schedules are finalized,” said Kim Hyun-yong, an analyst at Hyundai Motor Securities.

Kim added the price of concert tickets for K-pop groups’ world tours and the minimum guarantee rose 50-100% compared to pre-pandemic levels. 

Write to Sul-Gi Lee at surugi@hankyung.com
Jee Abbey Lee edited this article.