YG Entertainment C.E.O Yang Hyun-suk poses in his profile photo uploaded on YG Entertainment's official website. [YG Entertainment]

Former idol star and YG Entertainment C.E.O Yang Hyun-suk has turned out to be Korea's No. 1 billionaire celebrity.

Yang is enjoying its heyday thanks to the firm's affiliated artists PSY and Big Bang, as he became No. 49 stock rich in the country, the highest ranking among all celebrities here, Korea's financial news agency Chaebuldotcom's report said Tuesday.

Yang, who established YG Entertainment in 1998, saw its stock value increase from 130 billion Korean Won [about 116 million U.S. dollars] at the beginning of the year to 340 billion on September 28. It has been known that he owns 35.79 percent of the whole share.

With an increase of 161.8 percent in less than 12 months, the C.E.O has pushed SM Entertainment Chief Lee Soo-man down to No. 64 on the ranking and became the No. 1 stock billionaire of all local talent agency owners.

Meanwhile, Lee, the biggest shareholder of the SM, owns the firm's shares that equal to 262 billion Korean Won.

With the news, Yang has won another fierce battle with Lee, as YG Entertainment recorded bigger revenue than SM Entertainment for the first time in the first half of 2011. YG registered 44.7 billion Korean Won of revenue while SM had 40.5 billion during the same period.

Yang kicked off his music career as a member of popular Korean group Seo Tai-ji & Boys in 1992.

Since establishing YG Entertainment, which stands for his nickname Yang Goon, in 1996, he has been regarded as a key player in the K-pop business by training top K-pop acts such as SE7EN, Big Bang and 2NE1.

Alongside PSY, the company also manages the careers of popular Korean celebrities including actresses Kang Hye-jung, Ku Hye-sun and Yoo In-na.


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10 아시아 Reporter : Lee Hye Ji hjlee@
10 아시아 Editor : Monica Suk monicasuk@
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