JYP's 6.75% treasury stock hasn't moved since 2018 — traced to its 2013 listing
JYP Entertainment holds 6.75% of itself in treasury, far above the other five listed K-pop agencies checked. The count hasn't changed since a 2018 cancellation, and its own 5-year rule points back to JYP's 2013 backdoor listing.
AI-assisted, human-reviewed sourcing. Figures are pulled programmatically from the official sources listed at the end of this article and checked by an editor before publication.
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Rank Korea’s six listed K-pop agencies by the share of their own stock they hold in treasury, and one number stands far apart from the rest: JYP Entertainment, at 6.75%. HYBE holds 0.27%. SM holds none. YG, FNC and Cube sit between 0.77% and 4.39%. JYP’s stake is roughly nine times the group’s next-highest.
Where the six agencies stand
| Company | Treasury shares | % of shares outstanding |
|---|---|---|
| JYP Entertainment | 2,399,433 | 6.75% |
| Cube Entertainment | 682,659 | 4.39% |
| FNC Entertainment | 464,917 | 3.02% |
| YG Entertainment | 144,171 | 0.77% |
| HYBE | 113,337 | 0.27% |
| SM Entertainment | 0 | 0% |
FY2025 filings, DART stockTotqySttus. Treasury stock is company-held shares, not shares owned by outside investors.
What the trail behind the number shows
A 28 September 2018 filing gives the number a history. Immediately before that filing, JYP held 2,788,841 treasury shares — 7.99% of the company, even more than today. The filing disposed of 389,411 of them, by cancellation, and it states why: shares a company acquires through appraisal rights — bought back from shareholders who formally object to a merger — must by law be disposed of within five years of acquisition. JYP chose to cancel its share of them rather than resell them.
Subtract the 389,411 cancelled shares from the 2,788,841 held before the filing and you get 2,399,430 — within three shares of the 2,399,433 JYP reports holding today, seven years later. We could not find a filing explaining that small remaining gap, so we leave it as an open three-share difference rather than assume it away.
Why 2013, specifically
The five-year rule points to a specific window: shares disposed of in September 2018 under that rule were acquired around 2013. JYP’s own disclosure history shows exactly that kind of event in that year — a merger decision filed on 19 June 2013, accompanied by Korea Exchange market notices that explicitly label the transaction a backdoor listing (우회상장) and record a trading halt while the exchange confirmed it met the requirements. A backdoor listing is exactly the kind of transaction that generates appraisal-rights buybacks: shareholders of the company being merged, who object to the deal, can demand the company buy their shares instead of accepting the merger.
We have not pulled the full 2013 merger filing to name the counterparty or confirm the appraisal-rights mechanics in detail — the link here is the five-year rule cited in JYP’s own 2018 filing, matched against the one merger event in JYP’s history that sits five years earlier. Since that 2018 cancellation, JYP’s treasury-stock count has not moved once, in any filing we could find through September 2026.
This is a record of what JYP Entertainment filed with DART, not a judgement on the company or its shares, and not investment advice.
Data & Verification Notes
- Data as of
- Sources
- Financial Supervisory Service (Korea, Open DART) — stockTotqySttus (total shares outstanding, FY2025), tsstkDpDecsn (treasury stock disposal decision, rcept_no 20180928000744), and the disclosure list for corp code 00258689
- Korea Exchange (via DART's disclosure list) — Market notices accompanying JYP's 19 June 2013 merger decision (rcept_no 20130619900344, 20130619900343, 20130619900311), which label it a backdoor listing
- Cross-checks
- FY2025 filing: JYP's issued shares total 35,532,492, of which 2,399,433 are treasury stock — 6.753%. The same measure for the other five listed agencies we checked: HYBE 0.266%, SM 0%, YG 0.771%, FNC 3.02%, Cube 4.39%. JYP is the outlier
- A 28 September 2018 filing shows JYP held 2,788,841 treasury shares (7.99%) immediately before that decision, and disposed of 389,411 of them by cancellation. 2,788,841 minus 389,411 equals 2,399,430 — within 3 shares of today's reported 2,399,433, a gap we could not account for from the filings we read
- The 2018 filing states its own reason: treasury shares acquired via appraisal rights (주식매수청구권) must legally be disposed of within five years of acquisition, and the company chose cancellation. Five years before September 2018 is 2013
- JYP's disclosure list shows a merger decision on 19 June 2013, accompanied by Korea Exchange market notices explicitly confirming the transaction as a backdoor listing (우회상장) and a trading halt while that was verified — consistent with the shares' acquisition window implied by the 2018 filing
- We searched JYP's full DART filing list from October 2018 through September 2026 for any further treasury-stock transaction and found none — the count has been static for roughly seven years
- Excluded figures
- The name of the party JYP merged with in 2013, or the identity of the shareholders who exercised appraisal rights. We did not pull the full merger filing text to confirm these
- The exact 3-share gap between our calculated post-2018 count (2,399,430) and the FY2025 reported figure (2,399,433). No filing we read explains it
- Any judgement on whether JYP should cancel or use this treasury stock. This reports what was filed, not investment advice
- Whether other Korean-listed companies that went public via backdoor listing show the same pattern — this is a single measured case
- Instruments
- 035900
The full dataset behind these figures — every listed company, every row — is available to license. SeoulMarkets data for licence →
Not investment advice. SMarkets publishes data journalism for general information only. Nothing here is investment advice, a recommendation, or an offer to buy or sell any security — any investment you make is at your own risk and responsibility. Figures are derived from official public data sources and may be revised by the issuing agency. Verify independently before acting.
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