JYP Says It Never Got Nexroc's Takeover Bid: The Email Was Blocked as Spam

JYP Entertainment said it received no valid takeover proposal from Nexroc, the Japanese-linked investment group that announced plans to buy up to half of the K-pop agency, adding that an email Nexroc claims to have sent was blocked as spam.

In a statement, JYP said that even after disclosing on October 27 that it had not received any proposal regarding an acquisition of its shares, it still had not received or reviewed any officially valid proposal. 'The email that Nexroc said it had sent to the company was classified as blatant spam because it failed to meet the sender reliability standards under our security policy,' JYP said, adding that its email service provider confirmed it was blocked outright and never reached the company.

The dispute began on October 26, when Nexroc and its entertainment affiliate SVCV announced plans to acquire 25 to 50 percent of JYP's issued shares, aiming to begin a tender offer on November 20 and suggesting a 30 percent premium over a reference share price, without committing to a price or other terms. Nexroc said it would first send JYP a nonbinding proposal and negotiate for about a month before deciding whether to go ahead, meaning the bid has not been confirmed.

Nexroc had initially planned to submit its proposal on October 26, then moved the deadline to November 2. As of November 2, neither Nexroc nor JYP had confirmed that a proposal had actually been submitted, and no formal negotiations had been announced.

South Korea's Financial Supervisory Service is watching the situation, examining whether Nexroc's unusual announcement, made through a press release rather than a formal tender offer filing, could amount to unfair trading. JYP founder Park Jin-young and related parties collectively own 15.8 percent of the company, and at the close of trading on November 2, JYP's market capitalization stood at 1.35 trillion won, about $1 billion.