SAMG Entertainment’s overseas sales jump 62% as Korean IP company expands globally

SAMG Entertainment, a global IP content company, reported consolidated revenue of 75.1 billion won for the first half of 2026, up 5.6 percent from a year earlier, as overseas sales grew rapidly amid continued investment in new intellectual property and international expansion.

Overseas revenue rose 62.3 percent to 30.2 billion won, accounting for about 40 percent of the company’s total sales.

Operating profit was about 6 billion won, down from the same period a year earlier. SAMG Entertainment said the decline reflected upfront investment in new IP, further expansion into overseas markets and the addition of new business categories.

The first-half revenue was equivalent to about 53 percent of the 141.3 billion won in sales the company reported for all of 2025, its highest annual revenue since its founding. SAMG Entertainment expects the second half to benefit from the Aug. 5 release of its second theatrical feature, new launches planned for the fourth quarter and the seasonal strength of the second half.

The company is expanding its business across China, Japan, Russia, Taiwan and North America, with its animation and character properties being rolled out alongside toys, merchandise, licensing and distribution.

In China, SAMG Entertainment is in talks over the distribution of its second Teenieping theatrical film and is preparing to launch an online store for THE TEENIEPING. It has also begun advance sales of Metal Cardbot Season 3 toys.

In Japan, the first Heartsping: Teenieping of Love film has been confirmed for theatrical release, with a trailer expected to be shown in the third quarter. Metal Cardbot and Wishcat are also preparing to enter the Japanese market.

In Russia, Metal Cardbot Season 2 ranked second in national television viewing rankings, according to SAMG Entertainment. Season 3 began airing in July, with toys scheduled to go on sale in September.

In Taiwan, the company is working on Taiwanese-language dubbing for Catch! Teenieping and Metal Cardbot. In North America, SAMG Entertainment has begun the exclusive distribution in South Korea of Mattel’s KPop Demon Hunters merchandise and plans to add more internationally recognized IP to its distribution portfolio. Teenieping merchandise is scheduled to enter the US market later this year.

The international expansion comes as SAMG Entertainment has also strengthened its balance sheet. Its liabilities-to-equity ratio stood at 45.1 percent at the end of the first half, down from 62.7 percent at the end of 2025 and 216.2 percent at the end of 2024.

The company also completed the settlement of all of its convertible bonds during the second quarter. Total borrowings fell to about 4.9 billion won, an 80 percent reduction from the end of 2024, while borrowings as a percentage of shareholders’ equity declined to 5.8 percent.

SAMG Entertainment said the improvement in its capital structure has given it greater financial flexibility to invest in overseas expansion and new businesses.

The company has built a business model that connects its original animation and character IP with broadcast rights, toys, merchandise, distribution, licensing, platforms and global distribution. SAMG Entertainment said the completion of this business structure helped it return to profitability in the fourth quarter of 2024 and contributed to operating profit of 22.6 billion won for 2025.

Its latest theatrical release is also expected to contribute to second-half performance. Teenieping: Legend of the Whale Heartstone, the second film in the series, opened on Aug. 5 and passed 500,000 admissions on its 10th day in theaters, according to the company.

The first film had a notable effect on SAMG Entertainment’s quarterly performance. Revenue rose 54.7 percent year on year in the third quarter, the quarter of its release, followed by a 21.5 percent increase in the fourth quarter.

SAMG Entertainment is also broadening the audience for its IP. The THE TEENIEPING flagship store in Seongsu, Seoul, attracts an average of about 13,000 visitors a month, while consumers aged 18 to 34 account for about 25 percent of active members on the company’s online store.

Metal Cardbot has also continued to perform strongly in South Korea, where it remains the leading boys’ character franchise, according to SAMG Entertainment. Revenue from the property rose about 65 percent year on year, while cumulative toy sales in China surpassed 11.8 million units.

A longer-term growth initiative is a family-oriented animation project that SAMG Entertainment is co-producing with SM Entertainment, provisionally titled Superhero Idol Project.

The two companies signed a co-production agreement in July for the project, which has a total production budget of about 10 billion won. SAMG Entertainment will cover 90 percent of the production cost through an in-kind investment based on its in-house 3D animation production infrastructure and will oversee character and animation production. SM Entertainment will be responsible for music and choreography.

The companies plan to disclose key details of the project in 2027 and release it through a global streaming platform.

“The first half was a period in which we completed the normalization of our capital structure and reinvested the financial resources we secured into new IP and the expansion of our business categories,” Kim Su-hoon, CEO of SAMG Entertainment, said.

“With a monetization value chain now established from production to distribution, licensing and platforms, the scale and longevity of revenue generated by a successful IP will be different from the past,” Kim said.

“As theatrical releases, new seasons and market launches roll out together, we expect to see tangible results not only in Korea but also in international markets in the second half,” he said.