South Korea prosecutors indict Kakao group founder on stock manipulation charges, Yonhap reports (updated)

SM Entertainment Co

08/08/2024 03:24

(Adds details on second-quarter earnings, background on Kakao)
       SEOUL, Aug 8 (Reuters) - South Korean prosecutors
indicted on Thursday Kim Beom-su, the billionaire founder of
tech giant Kakao Corp  035720.KS , on charges of stock market
manipulation, the Yonhap news agency reported.
    The Kakao founder, who is also known as Brian Kim, was
arrested last month and has been detained since.
    He is seen as a visionary in South Korea's digital industry
for building Kakao's group of affiliates - worth 86 trillion won
($62 billion) by assets - from the ground up since launching the
popular messaging app KakaoTalk.chat in 2010. 
    Prosecutors say he was involved in manipulating the stock
price of SM Entertainment  041510.KQ  in February last year to
hinder a competitor, Hybe  352820.KS , from acquiring it.
        Kim has denied the accusations, saying he never ordered
or tolerated any illegal activity, the company said in a
statement.
  
        On Thursday, the tech giant posted an operating profit
of 134 billion won ($97.24 million) in the second quarter, 18.5%
up from a year ago. 
  
        Shina Chung, Kakao's CEO, told the post-earnings call
that the company acknowledged shareholders concerns about the
"difficulties from internal and external circumstances", but
would continue to provide its services seamlessly.  
  
        She did not provide further details on the legal issue.
  
        Former Kakao CEO Hong Eun-taek and former Kakao
Entertainment CEO Kim Sung-soo have also been indicted without
being detained, according to Yonhap. 
  
($1 = 1,378.0900 won)

 (Reporting by Hyunsu Yim and Ju-min Park
Editing by Ed Davies)
 ((Hyunsu.Yim@thomsonreuters.com;))