HYBE Posts 7.6% Drop In Q3 Operating Profit Despite Rise In Sales And Here’s Why

HYBE also shared its future plans for TXT, ENHYPEN and SEVENTEEN.

HYBE recently announced a 7.6 percent drop in operating profit for the third quarter of 2022 while predicting that next year’s profit rate will go further down due to BTS members’ enlistment since BTS accounted for 65 percent of HYBE’s sales. The agency projected better earnings in 2024, to be attributed to the performances of other groups and artists.

BTS posing for their group photo-folio project “Us, Ourselves, and BTS” | @bts_bighit/Twitter

HYBE’s consolidated third-quarter sales, estimated at ₩446 billion KRW (about $313 million USD), were up by 30. 6 percent from last year due to brisk album sales and the resumption of face-to-face performances. Despite the rise in sales, operating profit fell 7.6 percent on-year to ₩60.6 billion KRW (about $42.6 million USD) due to the costs of face-to-face performances and rookie auditions.

HYBE has drawn plans for BTS’s absence, saying it will soon reveal at least four new groups in 2023. HYBE CEO Park Ji Won admitted that the sales proportion generated by BTS would decrease due to the enlistment but shared a bit about HYBE’s plans to reduce their financial risk.

With a diversified artist portfolio, we can reduce risk, avoid focusing on specific countries, and flexibly respond to changing trends.

We will expand boundaries through convergence with musical diversity and technology built with a multi-label strategy to achieve continuous and explosive growth.

—Park Ji Won

HYBE also disclosed that TXT, ENHYPEN, and SEVENTEEN would be performing in twice the size of their recent concert venues due to these groups’ mostly sold-out concert dates this year. The explosive growth of rookie groups Le Sserafim and NewJeans will play a significant role in their plans.

ENHYPEN performed in sold-out venues for their first world tour, “Enhypen World Tour Manifesto” | Belift Lab
Source: Aju Business Daily