(Yicai Global) April 21 -- Shares of YH Entertainment Group surged after Zhang Hao from the Chinese artist management agency became the first non-South Korean person to win a K-pop talent show in South Korea.

The Beijing-based agency’s shares [HKG: 2306] jumped by 7.4 percent to CNY4.77 (US 70 cents) by noon, still down by 26 percent from the peak of the first day of trading on Jan. 19.

Zhang beat South Korean rival Sung Hanbin to win Boys Planet on television channel Mnet yesterday, Yicai Global learned as the topic started trending on social media platform Weibo. Four out of the nine finalists are signed by YH Entertainment, including two people from South Korea. The nine artists will form a boy band called ZB1 with contracts of two years and six months.

YH formed a subsidiary called Yuehua Korea in South Korea in 2014. The unit has cultivated several members of boy bands and girl groups in South Korea, including Lee Dohyun, an actor in a recent popular drama series called The Glory.

YH gets most of its revenue from managing artists. In 2022, the sum was CNY850 million (USD123.4 million), down from CNY1.2 billion (USD174 million) in 2021, according to earnings reports.

Interestingly, most of the income streams come from one artist. In the first nine months of last year, Chinese actor and UNIQ boy band member Wang Yibo contributed 59 percent of YH's total revenue.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi