Min Hee-jin’s Request to Own and Exercise NewJeans’s Contract from HYBE

On May 7th, an employee from HYBE posted an article about the dispute between HYBE and label ADOR’s CEO, Min Hee-jin, on the online forum Blind. This was also the same day that Min Hee-jin filed a request for an injunction at the Seoul Central District Court to prevent HYBE from exercising its voting rights.

Despite the imminent threat of being removed from her CEO position, Min Hee-jin is fighting to prevent HYBE from holding a shareholders’ meeting and exercising their voting rights. On April 29th, she submitted a request to the Western District Court to delay the date of the meeting, but her application was denied.

During the conversation, the HYBE employee noted, “You accused others of cheating, yet you yourself are the one engaging in deceitful behavior.”The employee also mentioned, “You initially requested a confrontation at the press conference, but then requested an extension for the audit, and now you are attempting to obstruct the exercise of voting rights?”In fact, Min Hee-jin declined to provide information assets when approached by HYBE for an audit.

After some delay, it was revealed that Min Hee-jin had requested HYBE to increase the put option for her 18% ownership in ADOR from 13 times to 30 times. While HYBE initially offered 100 billion won, Min Hee-jin insisted on a higher amount of around 30 billion won, arguing that it accurately reflected the value of new talent production.

As a request, Min Hee-jin asked HYBE for the authority to independently exercise the exclusive contract of NewJeans. In the entertainment industry, artists are considered the company’s property, making it impossible for a CEO or specific executive to solely hold and execute exclusive contracts. The decision to terminate an artist’s exclusive contract should be made by the board of directors.

Despite her previous claim that her purpose was not money, Min Hee-jin is now facing several accusations that contradict this statement. These include her alleged demand for a significant amount of money for a yet-to-debut boy group and her request for the right to terminate NewJeans’s exclusive contract.