THE KOREA ECONOMIC DAILY, GLOBAL EDITION

HYBE Co. has suffered a fall of its share price for two consecutive days after its popular girl group NewJeans demanded their former creative director Min Hee-jin be reinstated as CEO of their label ADOR in the ongoing saga of disputes between the K-pop powerhouse and its label ADOR.

It was the first time that the five-member idol group made their voice heard about the months-long feud, which could continue to haunt the music powerhouse, behind global sensation boy band BTS.

HYBE's share price declined nearly 3% to close at 164,000 won ($123.4) on Friday. It has lost 5.7% in two trading days as of Friday close, reversing the 2.5% advance in the broader Kospi index.

In a livestream on Youtube on Wednesday, all the five members of NewJeans said they wanted the reinstatement of Min as ADOR CEO and their creative director. They asked HYBE founder and Chairman Bang Si-hyuk to bring ADOR back to where it was by Sept. 25.

"I never want to conform to, go along with or follow them. … I will never choose to go in the the direction (of ADOR's new management),” Haerin said the broadcast.

She was joined by four other NewJeans members -- Minji, Hanni, Danielle and Haerin -- in the livestream. HYBE did not comment on their demand.

In late August, ADOR’s board of directors has replaced her with HYBE’s chief human resources officer Kim Ju-young. After her dismissal, Min has stayed on the board as an in-house but her term is ending on Nov. 2 this year.

In a a renewed attempt to take over as ADOR chief, Min on Friday filed an injunction with the Seoul Central District Court to allow her to convene an extraordinary shareholder meeting of ADOR and to call for reelection of its inside directors.

HYBE is ADOR’s largest shareholder with an 80% stake.

In the legal fight, Min is seeking to extend her three-year term as ADOR’s in-house director. She is preparing another legal action against HYBE to nullify the decision by ADOR’s board of directors last month to sack her and appoint her replacement.

Min has accused HYBE of violating a shareholders’ contract, which is supposed to allow her to serve as ADOR CEO until November 2026.

Their disputes dated back to April this year, after HYBE announced a plan to fire Min, accusing her of breach of trust. It said she had attempted a coup to take over ADOR with outside investors. But she has strongly refuted the allegations.

HYBE controls multiple music labels, including ADOR and Big Hit, behind BTS.

In the second quarter ended on June 30, HYBE’s net profit nosedived to 10.1 billion won ($7.6 billion), less than one-tenth of 117.4 billion won in the year prior.

It attributed the profit fall to the hiatus of BTS due to their mandatory military servic.

Write to Da Eun Choi at max@hankyung.com
 

Yeonhee Kim edited this article