Hallyu star Bae Yong-joon has made largest stock profit among Korean entertainers.

According to Chaebol.com on Sept. 7, Bae, the largest stockholder of Keyeast, topped among celebrities of highest stock earnings, by hitting about 17 billion won (about $13 million). Taking 34.6 percent of the total, Bae’s profit made 43.4 percent increase as the stock price rose this year.

A former singer and a current entertainment agency owner, Lee Soo-man became a second largest stock profit earner. As a heavy shareholder (26.75 percent) of SM Entertainment, Lee owned about 14.3 billion won, according to a record on Sept. 4. On July 5, he topped the rank over Bae, due to the rising popularity of SM’s “Girls’ Generation,” and “Super Junior” early this year. But a legal battle with members of falgship boy band “TVXQ” in August led to a slump of the stock value.

Another former singer, Yang Soo-kyung, also a wife of Byun Doo-sup, a representative of Yedang Entertainment, became the second runner-up. In June 2009, Yang rose as a second largest stockholder (5.40 percent) of Yedang Entertainment, having a stock value of 5.46 billion won.

Actress and singer Kyun Mi-ri followed, with more than 4.5 billion won worth of stocks in FCB Twelve. The stock price of the company jumped from 16,200 won to 82,700 won, quintupling its value in a month.

Singer “Rain,” real name Jung Ji-hoon, followed Kyun by making 4.16 billion won from J.Tune Entertainment.

MC Shin Dong-yup and Kang Ho-dong became fifth and sixth runners-up respectively, thanks to their ownership of D Chocolate.

Source: Korea Herald