Karina and Lee Jae-wook's dating news slashes SM Entertainment's value by $50M

Fans of aespa’s Karina and Lee Jae-wook might have sighed in despair or shed a few tears yesterday at the announcement of the happy couple — and so did the shareholders behind Karina’s agency SM Entertainment.

aespa's Karina, right, and actor Lee Jae-wook at Prada's 2024 Fall/Winter Men's Collection fashion show in Milan on Jan. 14. [PRADA]

Fans of aespa’s Karina and actor Lee Jae-wook might have sighed in despair or shed a few tears yesterday at the announcement of the happy couple — and so did the shareholders behind Karina’s agency SM Entertainment.

SM Entertainment shares closed at 77,900 won ($58.45) on Tuesday, down 3.47 percent compared to the day before.

In terms of market cap, some 66.7 billion won had disappeared in a day, falling to 1.86 trillion won.

The K-pop agency’s shares kicked off at 80,700 won, which began to dip dramatically after 10:20 a.m., when local media outlet Dispatch released an exclusive report that the two were dating.

Shares fell as low as 76,700 won around 1:30 p.m.

Although both sides rather impressively admitted to their relationship without pulling the “we’re just friends” excuse as many others do, Karina’s dating seemed to have affected her agency's shares, as she’s one of the core members of aespa, a dominant fourth-generation girl group that SM Entertainment fronts.

aespa’s contribution to SM Entertainment’s concert revenue this year is projected to take up 23 percent of the total, second behind NCT’s 45 percent, according to a report from Mirae Asset Securities. That’s even higher than some of the other well-known SM artists such as SHINee, TVXQ, Taeyeon and Red Velvet.

In terms of streaming revenue, aespa is expected to take up 14 percent of the total revenue, sitting in third place behind NCT’s 26 percent and Super Junior’s 22 percent. aespa is followed by Exo, Red Velvet, Girls’ Generation and SHINee.

As of 10:43 a.m., SM Entertainment shares have rebounded, trading at 80,100 won.

BY LEE JAE-LIM [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]