TVXQ, Girls Generation and Super Junior will be able to obtain stocks of their agency SM Entertainment at a bargain price through third-party allocation.

SM Entertainment announced that it will increase capital by issuing 21,120 new stocks and selling them to 48 singers and actors that belong to the company, worth 980 million won.

The entertainment firm said its artists can buy treasury stocks at 45,550 won, 10 percent lower than the average price for the last three days. SM Entertainment shares closed at 46,100 won Wednesday.

“This paid-in capital increase is a way to strengthen the partnership between the company and its artists. We hope this will help the entertainers share the vision and growth of the company and participate in its future,”

SM Entertainment spokeswoman

The cheaper stock allocation is only for SM artists. Veteran singers such as Kang Ta and BoA have been given the chance to each purchase 680 stocks. Members of Super Junior, TVXQ and Girls Generation are also able to each buy 680 shares, while those in SHINee and f(x) can buy 340.

The artists will pay by April 3 and receive the new stocks on April 13.

Currently, Lee Soo-man, the founder and producer, is the largest shareholder of the company, with 4.4 million shares, worth around 208 billion won going by Monday’s closing price.

SM Entertainment is looking to further growth as its artists are gaining popularity overseas.

The company turned over 109 billion won last year, a 27.2 percent jump from 2010. It was the first time for the firm to record sales over 100 billion won. SM held concerts in Paris and New York last year, broadening the domain of K-pop.

According to the entertainment firm’s prospectus, released earlier this month, TVXQ, Girls’ Generation, Super Junior, SHINee and f(x) generated up to 80 percent of the company’s sales as of the third quarter last year. Girls’ Generation alone earned 68.8 billion won from 2009 to 2011.

“The amount of capital increase is small but it is symbolic. Since entertainment management is a human resources business, such a paid-in capital increase could enhance partnerships,” SK Securities analyst Lee Hyun-jung said.

Other major entertainment companies YG and JYP are also listed but have not assigned stock to their artists.

As reported last year, SM Entertainment will be producing a new drama titled “To the Beautiful You,” a Korean adaptation to the mega-popular Japanese manga “Hana Kimi,” which sold over 17 million copies. After a short pause, the drama has resumed its production.

SM has partnered up with the director of “Boys over Flowers,” Jeon Ki Sang, for “To the Beautiful You.” A representative of SM Entertainment announced, “We have resumed productions and plan on broadcasting this year. We will start filming as soon as we complete auditions for the roles”

“To the Beautiful You” will be broadcasted on SBS, and there is a high possibility that the drama will take over the Monday-Tuesday night slot this July. A representative of SBS stated, “It [the broadcasting schedule] hasn’t been set in stone, but the story is about high school students. Therefore, it will probably aim for a summer broadcast.”

The original manga has had a Japanese drama version created in 2007 and a Taiwanese version produced in 2006. Both versions were extremely popular. The story is about Mijukiga, an extreme fan girl of athlete Sano, who moves from her home in America to Japan where Sano lives. She impersonates a guy to attend Sano’s boys only high school. The drama will detail the lives of the school’s pretty boys. SM Entertainment has a slew of good-looking male idol stars who would be perfect for the parts.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, the drama’s production had been postponed for a year. However, over the past year, SM Entertainment has been meticulously planning and preparing. It’s been said that SHINee’s Minho and f(x)’s Sulli are the top candidates for the lead roles, exciting fans.

So tell us… Which Super Junior members would you like to see in the drama?

The profits earned by SM artists like Girls’ Generation, Super Junior, and TVXQ have been revealed. According to Financial Supervisory Service Data Analysis, Retrieval and Transfer System, SM Entertainment’s March 6th prospectus listed their top five earning artists and further showed their sales relative to each other.

As expected, Girls’ Generation made the highest contribution to SM Entertainment’s sales figures. Super Junior came in second, with TVXQ, SHINee, and f(x) making up the rest of the top five.

Girls’ Generation brought in a total of 21,737,000,000 won (approximately 19.3 million USD) by the third quarter of 2011 alone, with 7,995,000,000 won (7.1 million USD) due to album sales.

Following them were TVXQ with 11,723,000,000 won (10.4 million USD), SHINee with 5,495,000,000 won (4.9 million USD), and f(x) with 3,577,000,000 won (3.2 million USD).

While the above includes earnings from individual activities, SM Town and other performances and projects are excluded. This essentially means that their actual earnings are a lot higher than presented in the prospectus.

Click here to listen to the preview song!

BoA’s theme song for the reality singing competition ‘K-Pop Star’, entitled “원 드림” (One Dream), featuring raps by Super Junior-M’s Henry and SHINee’s Key, will be released digitally on March 18th. SM states,

“The song is meant to cheer on participants in the competition, particularly emphasizing on the challenges they face, and the joy and frustration they feel as they run towards their dream.”

The show, the finalists, and the judges, are enjoying great popularity.

It has been over a year and a half since BoA’s last major Korean release, the 6th album ‘Hurricane Venus’, in August 2010.

• Why I love Super Junior? I wasn’t into K-Pop when Super Junior debuted, I started noticing them only after they released Sorry Sorry (in my opinion, THE song that shot them to superstardom and got them where they are right now). My first impression of them was “Why so many members?” and “What’s with the haircut?” While watching EHB, it was then when I realized that these boys began to grow on me. They have a nonchalant approach to fame and they don’t take themselves too seriously, that’s a quality I rarely find in other K-Pop groups. I realize in Korean entertainment world, idol images are shaped and they have to maintain that, but every so often, with SJ members, their real personalities appear in interviews, variety shows, radio broadcasts and especially Super Show. They way they interact with each other make me feel like I’m watching the boys-next-door, approachable, funny, dorky and humble. I guess that imperfection shows that they are real and relatable.
  
  Why I love TwELFs and SPL? When I first started collecting information about Super Junior, I stumbled upon several fanbases, but TwELFs stood out to my attention immediately for several reasons: quality content, good English, pleasing to the eyes & easy to navigate.Like any other new converts, I joined in the fandom bandwagon and participated with gusto especially on Trending Topic projects. I was surprised to know that TwELFs founders were still in college, because they ran a tight ship with the blog and Twitter account. I was even more pleasantly surprised when I communicated via Twitter with the founders, because they were so friendly and unpretentious. TwELFs blog has meaty content without sacrificing entertainment value. It is informational without sounding too serious and at the same time, provides all the fun tidbits for fans –newly minted or veteran.
  
  SPL is oozing with creativity (e.g. forum members referred to as Students and Super Junior members as Professors!) and over a short period of time has gained the reputation of being one of the most acclaimed international forums for ELFs. SPL keeps making changes for the better and continues to carry out credible projects for Super Junior and ELFs. SPL is a labor of love, and I salute the people behind it, who are such dedicated hard-workers.