Fantagio has responded to reports about its sale.

On March 9, Sports Today reported that Fantagio had recently entered the M&A (mergers and acquisitions) market and was positively reviewing an offer from a Korean investor to take over the company.

In 2016, Fantagio sold part of its shares to Gold Finance Korea, the Korean branch of JC Group, which is a Chinese real estate and investment company. In 2017, through a paid-in capital increase, JC Group invested more capital in Fantagio and became a major shareholder in the company (owning 50.07 percent of stocks). JC Group then dismissed CEO Na Byung Joon, the founder of Fantagio, which resulted in several actors at Fantagio leaving the agency.

According to Sports Today’s report, about 30 percent of JC Group’s shares in Fantagio are up for sale. If a new investor acquires these shares, then they will become Fantagio’s greatest shareholder. Sports Today speculated that financial difficulties might be behind the sale. JC Group’s Wei Jie, once the CEO of Fantagio, has been arrested for various controversies in China and the company is reportedly on the verge of bankruptcy.

A source from Fantagio told DongA.com, “We are selling about 30 percent of the shares that were owned by JC Group. It is only that our major shareholder is changing. Until now, the agency has been operating on its own capital, independent of JC Group and managed by a professional executive. Therefore, the agency will continue to operate stably regardless of issues related to major shareholder changes. We have not experienced any problems operating on our own capital.”

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