JYP Entertainment has issued a fresh official statement denying it has ever received or reviewed a valid acquisition proposal, pushing back once again against reports that Japanese investment groups are pursuing a stake in the K-pop agency.
In the full statement, carried by Sports Kyunghyang on October 29, JYP said that despite its October 27 disclosure stating it had received no stake-acquisition proposal, it “has not received or reviewed any officially valid proposal” connected to the reported takeover. The new detail: the email the firms said they sent never actually reached the company.
According to the statement, the email was classified as “blatant spam” under JYP’s security policy because it failed to meet sender-reliability standards, and it was forcibly blocked before delivery. JYP said it confirmed through its mail service provider that the message produced no delivery record it could verify, meaning the company has no record of receiving the email at all.
The statement is the company’s second formal denial in three days, and it lands in the middle of a fast-moving saga that began on October 26. That day, reports said Japanese investment groups The NEXROC Group and SVCV were pushing ahead with plans to acquire a stake in JYP and launch a tender offer as early as November 20, targeting between 25 and 50 percent of the company’s issued shares. A tender offer is a public offer to buy shares directly from existing shareholders.
The market reacted sharply to the initial reports. JYP shares surged to as high as 44,000 won during after-hours trading on the Korea Exchange and closed the session at 42,150 won, up 14.38 percent from the regular close, according to Sports Kyunghyang. South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service said on October 27 that it was monitoring trading in JYP shares, calling the situation highly unusual and examining transaction records from before the announcement.
The reported scale explains the stakes: 25 to 50 percent would exceed the mid-teens percentage held by founder and chief producer Park Jin-young together with related parties, as reported on October 26.
For now, the two sides remain in direct contradiction: the would-be buyers have outlined a tender offer timetable, while JYP says no valid proposal reached it and the email cited was stopped by spam filters. Until a valid proposal surfaces or final tender terms are published, the reported takeover remains unconfirmed.
