This article was posted on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove (MM) site at 4:03 p.m. on Nov. 12, 2025.
SK Telecom is believed to have pursued the sale of its stake in P NATION, the entertainment agency founded by singer PSY. SK Telecom, which has begun divesting noncore assets such as SK Stoa to raise funds for artificial intelligence (AI) investment, is thought to have included even minority stakes in investee companies among assets for sale.
According to sources in the investment banking (IB) industry, SK Telecom recently classified its stake in P NATION as a noncore asset for sale and sought potential buyers. It selected major domestic venture capital (VC) firms as qualified acquisition candidates, and the corporate strategy office of SK Telecom reportedly led contacts with investors.
The entire 9.7% stake in P NATION held by SK Telecom (as of the end of the last first half) was said to be up for sale. SK Telecom became a shareholder in 2018 by investing 5 billion won to secure 5G content. At the time, P NATION's corporate value was estimated at about 45 billion won.
P NATION is a performance-focused entertainment agency founded by singer PSY in 2018. It started as PSY Entertainment and later changed its name to P NATION. Crush, Hwasa and Heize are among P NATION's artists, and the company recently introduced the girl group Baby Don't Cry.
Analysts say SK Telecom appears to be seeking cash across the board, even putting minority stakes in its investments up for sale. Although it has accelerated plans to build data centers as part of an AI-focused restructuring, subscriber losses and deteriorating results followed a SIM card hacking incident that surfaced in April.
In fact, SK Telecom's consolidated sales in the third quarter were provisionally tallied at 3.9781 trillion won, a 12.2% decline from the same period a year earlier. Operating profit for the same period fell 91% from 533.3 billion won to 48.4 billion won. Net income in the third quarter turned to a loss of 163.9 billion won.
SK Telecom has also begun the sale of SK Stoa. SK Stoa is the country's No. 1 T-commerce (data home shopping) operator, and SK Telecom owned 100% of its equity. In addition, it decided to sell the SK Planet Pangyo building it acquired in 2019. In April it disposed of all its shares in Kakao.
A source in the VC industry said, "SK Telecom, which has hit growth limits, appears to be speeding up fund raising to expand new businesses such as AI, cloud and data centers," adding, "I understand that many investment assets that do not produce significant business synergies, in addition to P NATION, are on the sales list."
Meanwhile, SK Telecom said regarding the sale of its stake in P NATION, "We are not pursuing it at this time."