In this Dec 6, 2019 photo, (left to right) RM, J-Hope, Jungkook and Jimin of BTS perform onstage during 102.7 KIIS FM's Jingle Ball 2019 Presented by Capital One at the Forum in Los Angeles, California. (RICH FURY / GETTY IMAGES FOR IHEARTMEDIA / BLOOMBERG)

Big Hit Entertainment Co, the manager of K-pop boy band BTS, is looking to raise as much as 962.6 billion won (US$812 million) in a South Korean initial public offering that is set to be the country’s largest in three years.

Big Hit and BTS have helped popularize K-pop, adding to the rising global visibility of Korean entertainment including TV dramas popular across Asia

Big Hit set the price range for sale of 7.13 million new shares at 105,000 won to 135,000 won each, according to a statement filed on Wednesday. At the top of the range it would have a market capitalization of 4.6 trillion won (US$3.9 billion), based on the number of common shares.

Big Hit and BTS have helped popularize K-pop, adding to the rising global visibility of Korean entertainment including TV dramas popular across Asia and films like Parasite, the winner of this year’s Academy Award for best picture. BTS’s Dynamite topped the Billboard’s Hot 100, the first Asian act to be No 1 on the US Music chart since Kyu Sakamoto’s Sukiyaki held the No 1 spot for 3 weeks in 1963.

ALSO READ: BTS scores a first for K-pop band on Billboard chart with 'Dynamite'

The IPO will test investor appetite for K-pop, given that shares of listed rivals SM Entertainment Co, home to boy band EXO, had slumped some 43 percent this year through June lows given concert cancellations due to the coronavirus pandemic. The shares have since recovered and are now down 3 percent this year.

Big Hit said in 2017 it was considering a listing and has since built the seven-member ensemble into one of the world’s top live draws, grossing US$170 million in 2019, ranking it fifth, just behind Elton John, according to concert trade publication Pollstar.

Big Hit’s will also help galvanize the IPO market in South Korea, which had been suffering from low listing volumes in recent years. Some US$2.81 billion has been raised through first-time share sales this year, inching closer to the US$3.38 billion that was fetched in all of 2019, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

READ MORE: BTS' fans match group's US$1m donation to Black Lives Matter

Earlier this year SK Biopharmaceuticals Co raised US$784 million in what was then the largest Korean IPO in three years. Kakao Games, a unit of Kakao Corp, is set to list on Kosdaq next week, having raised 384 billion won in its offering. The deal drew about 59 trillion won bids from retail investors, according to Yonhap News.

Founder and Chief Executive Officer Bang Si-hyuk is largest shareholder of Big Hit, owning 43.44 percent while Netmarble holds about 25 percent, according to Wednesday’s filing. NH Investment & Securities Co, Korea Investment & Securities Co, and JPMorgan Chase & Co are leading the offering.