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A top executive at Kakao has been arrested for alleged stock price manipulation during the South Korean internet giant’s heated acquisition battle for K-pop agency SM Entertainment this year.
The Seoul Southern District Court issued an arrest warrant for Kakao’s chief investment officer Bae Jae-hyun on Thursday. Financial regulators have accused him, along with two other Kakao executives, of buying Won240bn ($178mn) of SM shares in order to undermine a tender offer from rival bidder Hybe.
The court did not issue warrants for the other two executives. All three are also accused of not reporting their large stockholdings to regulators.
The Financial Supervisory Service had been conducting a wide-ranging investigation into Kakao and SM since February over the allegations.
Kakao took over SM after an intense bidding war with Hybe, the label behind K-pop sensation BTS. The battle sent SM’s stock price to a record high, but Hybe withdrew its bid in March after Kakao made a higher counter offer.
Bae’s lawyer has denied the charges against him, saying the SM stock purchase was legitimate.
Kakao shares dropped nearly 3 per cent on Thursday, underperforming a 1.9 per cent fall in the benchmark Kospi index. The stock is down nearly a quarter so far this year.
SM shares declined 4 per cent on Thursday but are still up more than 50 per cent year to date.
Market leader Hybe and the entertainment subsidiary of Kakao were keen to take over SM in order to enrich their content and become the national entertainment champion capable of taking on overseas music labels.
SM, along with JYP and YG Entertainment, dominated the K-pop industry before the emergence of boy band BTS, whose rapid ascent to global stardom over the past decade has helped make Hybe the sector’s dominant player.
While K-pop has been building audiences in the west and Asia, the country’s multibillion-dollar entertainment industry has suffered from accusations of sexual misconduct, tax evasion and financial mismanagement.
Bae’s arrest comes after South Korean regulators vowed to crack down on insider trading and stock price manipulation to clean up the country’s $1.8tn stock market. They plan to impose hefty fines and speed up probes into unusual trading activity.
As part of efforts to ferret out unfair trading, the FSS said this week it planned to impose record fines on two global investment banks, which it did not name, for their “routine and intentional” naked short selling.
