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New CEO for The Black Label - former VC who took game company to public listing. [English Translation] (News)
Why this matters: A new CEO with experience in investments and getting public listed signals that TBL is on track in getting listed as predicted when their legal status changed from subsidiary to associate of YG in 2020. Music-wise, they will have ka-ching to acquire big local artists, especially in khiphop where it’s common for artists to move companies. Now it's even clearer why RTee is in SMTM11. Sidenote CJ E&M owns MNET and big khiphop labels like AOMG, Higher and co-manage Belift Lab with HYBE. A shake-up of the industry is in the works.
Translation of 서울경제 exclusive report.
Former CEO of KOSDAQ listed Pearl Abyss making a comeback, but to the entertainment industry 6 months after leaving the gaming company of market capitalisation of USD 7 billion, bringing in wealth of experience
Venture Capitalist joins The Black Label
Former CEO Jeong Kyung In (pictured), who took a break after leaving Pearl Abyss (KOSDAQ:263750) in this March, will return as the head of a domestic entertainment company. The next destination is The Black Label, established by YG Entertainment's representative producer (producer) Park Hong-joon (US name: Teddy). Former CEO Jeong, based on his experience as a venture investment reviewer and CEO of a listed company, will promote the company's investment in the future. He will be in charge of the listing process..
New CEO has already started work.
According to the investment banking (IB) industry on the 16th, The Black Label will recruit former Pearl Abyss CEO Jeong Kyung-in and attract large-scale investment. It is known that Jeong Kyung-in, incoming CEO of The Black Label, has already started work this month and learning on the job. He is expected to take office as the official CEO after a resolution by the board of directors in the near future.
Jeong Kyung In graduated from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Seoul National University and worked as an investment reviewer at LB Investment, a large domestic venture capital (VC). He built a relationship with Pearl Abyss as an investor during his time at LB Investment, and was hired as the CEO of Pearl Abyss in 2016. After resigning from the CEO of Pearl Abyss in March, he also worked as an advisor at a real estate startup.
The Black Label is an entertainment agency founded jointly by CEO Park and YG Entertainment in 2016. CEO Park is an artist who made his debut as a hip-hop group 1TYM in 1990, and is also a star producer who behind Big Bang, 2NE1, and Blackpink. The Black Label's main businesses include record production, nurturing new artists, and actor management. Representative artists include Zion.T and Somi Jeon. Last year, it recorded about USD 7 million in sales and USD .7 million in operating loss.
The Black Label attracted its first investment since the company was founded in early 2021, and the company's valuation at that time was about about USD 100 million. Saehan Venture Capital and others have invested USD 2.8 million. At the time, Saehan Venture Capital and others made investments in the form of acquiring convertible bonds (CBs) issued by The Black Label.
The Black Label's recruitment of someone who has not worked in the entertainment industry is interpreted as a move considering the case of going public in the future as well as attracting investment. Jeong Kyung In has experience investing in several venture companies during his time as a VC examiner, and after joining Pearl Abyss, he mainly directed investment attraction and listing. Pearl Abyss has successfully entered the stock market since the inauguration of CEO Jeong, and once surpassed KRW 9 trillion in market capitalisation to become a major stock in the KOSDAQ.
The Black Label plans to start working on attracting investment in earnest once the nominee Jeong officially joins the group. In the current venture investment market, the corporate value of The Black Label is about 300 billion won. The size of the procurement has not been confirmed yet, but it is expected to be at least 50 billion won. Based on the funds secured by attracting investment, The Black Label plans to recruit big domestic artists, strengthen record production capabilities, and expand overseas business.
The Black Label plans to recruit big domestic artists, strengthen record production capabilities, and expand overseas business.
An IB industry official said, “CEO Jeong’s experience as a VC and a listed company representative for a long time will be of great help to the growth of The Black Label, which is still at the start-up level. “
The Black Label has CEO Park as the largest shareholder, and YG Entertainment is the second-largest shareholder with 30.11%. The Board of Directors consists of CEO Park (inside director), YG Entertainment Chairman Yang Min-seok (inside director), Choi Soon-ho (inside director), The Black Label director (inside director), Saehan Startup Investment CEO Lee Jung- woo (outside director), Song Bo-young vice president of Kukje Gallery (outside director), and Shin Hyun-seong, general manager (auditor) of Chai Corporation and others.
Source : https://www.sedaily.com/NewsView/26CDGM06BF
