This article was published on June 2, 2025, at 10:26 a.m. on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove site.
Contentree JoongAng is pushing to sell its subsidiary SLL JoongAng's management rights. Initially, SLL JoongAng had selected an underwriter for an initial public offering (IPO), but it is understood that they shifted to a sale after deciding it would be difficult to achieve the desired corporate value in the IPO market.
On the 2nd, according to the investment banking (IB) industry, Contentree JoongAng recently decided to sell SLL JoongAng and selected Goldman Sachs as the underwriter. The corporate value is expected to be in the early to mid-1 trillion won range.
The largest shareholder of SLL JoongAng is Contentree JoongAng, which holds 53.82% equity. Vice Chairman Hong Jeong-do holds 4%, JTBC holds 2.84%, Central Holdings holds 1.8%, and President Hong Jeong-in holds 1.18%.
SLL JoongAng also has equity from financial investors (FIs). Domestic private equity firm Praxis Capital holds 18.36%, and China's Tencent holds 10.11%.
In March 2021, SLL JoongAng agreed to conditions for listing within three years after receiving investments of 300 billion won and 100 billion won from Praxis Capital and Tencent, respectively. To this end, they selected NH Investment & Securities as the underwriter for the listing in January of last year.
However, SLL JoongAng's profitability worsened due to rising production costs and a slump in the domestic advertising market, recording losses for three consecutive years from 2022 to 2024. The number of airings for dramas on the captive channel JTBC decreased from 217 in 2020 to 152 last year, which also contributed to the decline in performance.
Ultimately, SLL JoongAng has recently extended the listing deadline by an additional year. This is an extension after having already postponed it by a year. In other words, SLL JoongAng, Praxis Capital, and Tencent have agreed to list by March of next year.
The sale price of SLL JoongAng is expected to be in the early to mid-1 trillion won range. Considering that the corporate value when they received investments from Praxis Capital and Tencent was 1.2 trillion won, it seems they must recognize at least a value in the early to mid-1 trillion won range.
However, compared to competitors, there is a perspective that it will be difficult for SLL JoongAng to be valued at mid-1 trillion won. In the case of Studio Dragon, with revenue of 550 billion won, its market capitalization is around 1.47 trillion won. Since SLL JoongAng has revenue of 470 billion won, a simple comparison with Studio Dragon would estimate its corporate value at 1.25 trillion won. However, Studio Dragon reported an operating profit of 36 billion won last year, highlighting a distinction from the loss-making SLL JoongAng.