LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the parent company of luxury fashion brands Louis Vuitton, Celine, Marc Jacobs and Givenchy, is expected to invest more than 100 billion won ($97.2 million) in the South Korean entertainment firm YG Entertainment.

With the investment, the Paris-based firm aims for business synergy between the world’s largest luxury empire and the Asian entertainment giant, according to media reports Wednesday.

“Negotiations have been held since June. The investment is just a matter of when and how much,” an insider was quoted as saying by Maeil Business Newspaper.

LCapital Asia, a private equity fund under LVMH, is reportedly in talks with YG about the latter issuing more than 100 billion won worth of redeemable convertible preference shares to LVMH. The amount is equivalent to about 17 percent of YG’s market value, which is estimated at 600 billion won.

YG, one of the most influential showbiz agencies in Korea and Asia, represents K-pop stars including Psy, Big Bang, 2NE1, Lee Hi and others.

“YG is in high demand as K-pop stars have huge influence over the Chinese market, which is considered a gold mine for luxury fashion companies,” a Hong Kong-based investment bank insider was quoted as saying to a local news outlet. “Other financial firms are expressing their interest in YG.”

YG Entertainment will hold an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting on Aug. 27 to revise the articles of the company so that it can issue convertible, preferred and redeemable stocks subject to a third-party allotment.

However, the entertainment firm is expected to remove voting rights from the newly issued stocks in order to keep managerial rights with the company’s founder and CEO Yang Hyun-suk and his younger brother Min-suk. The older Yang holds 29.9 percent of company shares while his brother owns 5.42 percent.

Both Louis Vuitton Korea and YG Entertainment declined to comment on the issue.

By Bae Ji-sook (baejisook@heraldcorp.com)