Taewon Entertainment leaves stock market

Jeong Tae-won's long-lived production company Taewon Entertainment, which has made such diverse films as "Nowhere To Hide" (1999), "Marrying the Mafi"a (2002), and "Shadowless Sword" (2006), is effectively de-listing from the KOSDAQ stock exchange.

JEONG and other stockholders FireWorks International and Cannizaro Asia Master Fund sold their shares to a group of private investors who will convert the listed company to a energy and resources firm. Meanwhile, JEONG is establishing a new, unlisted company called Taewon Production which will continue to produce its current lineup.

The move marks the end of an era in many ways. Beginning in 2005, a large number of Korean film companies including Taewon Entertainment, MK Pictures, Tube Pictures, and others achieved "backdoor" listings on the stock exchange through reverse acquisitions such as that described above. Given the mid-decade craze over Korean content and the "Korean Wave",many of the companies saw their value soar.

However, when such companies began to expand their level of production, a bubble was created and too many films were made, leading to the downturn in profitability which still plagues the industry today. Many companies also found that the demands of running a listed company, including quarterly performance reports for investors, were not well suited to the film business.

Taewon's current projects include the TV drama "IRIS" starring Lee Byeong-Heon and the Asian co-production "Spaghetti Versus Noodle" by Yuen Woo-ping.

Darcy Paquet (KOFIC)