Your seven favorite K-pop stars just nabbed seven figures each. The BTS boys became millionaires today with an impressive initial public offering of 135,000 won for label Big Hit Entertainment. That’s approximately $115 per share — the biggest South Korean market debut in over three years — which values the label at over $4 billion. Each member of BTS got 68,385 shares from Big Hit CEO and producer Bang Si-hyuk in August, putting $7.9 million in their pockets with Big Hit’s September 28 debut. (Meanwhile, Bang, who owns nearly 43 percent of Big Hit, easily becomes a billionaire off the listing.) It’s a victory for the band members, given K-pop’s history of taking advantage of its performers. It also comes as the boys are at the top of the world, announcing new album Be over the weekend after notching their first No. 1 hit for lead single “Dynamite.†Forget about streams and merch — all the real ARMY members will be buying up those Big Hit shares when they start trading on October 15.
Update, October 15: After the first day of trading, Big Hit Entertainment’s stock is valued at 258,000 won per share, or around $225, according to Variety. Shares of the K-pop company began trading at 270,000 won, double its initial valuing, on October 15, and increased by the maximum allowed 30 percent early into the day before settling at the final number, the New York Times reported. That’s still over a 90 percent increase from the initial valuing, allowing BTS to end the day as comfortable multimillionaires thanks to the group’s collective 478,000 shares. Some 6.5 million shares traded on opening day — coming after BTS streamed their MAP OF THE SOUL ON:E concert to almost a million paying ticket-holders on October 10 and 11. And on October 12 they nabbed the top-two spots on the Hot 100 in the U.S. off their remix of Jason Derulo and Jawsh 685’s “Savage Love (Laxed — Siren Beat)†and hit “Dynamite†(which the boys also performed at October 14’s Billboard Music Awards). Did you see their bag? Hella thick, indeed.