It was revealed that Min requested the exclusive right to terminate the contract of girl group NewJeans without having to go through Ador’s board of directors, according to K-pop industry sources. This request for modification of the contract between the shareholders of Ador was formulated and addressed to the Hybe group through Min’s law firm last February. The CEO of Ador holds 20% of the shares while Hybe 80%.
This follows tense negotiations between the two parties late last year, including over issues such as changing the option to resell shares held by Min to 30 times their value and granting the Additional repurchase option of 5% of Ador’s capital for Min.
In general terms, a production house considers the right of an exclusive contract with an artist as an essential asset for the company while the decision of termination must be approved by the board of directors in the case of large companies of the entertainment industry. Groups like Bangtan Boys (BTS) and Blackpink have publicly announced new exclusive contracts via a resolution by the board of directors.
If Min’s request is accepted, then NewJeans will be able to terminate its exclusive contract only at Min’s discretion, without involvement of the Ador board of directors or the Hybe group, Ador’s largest shareholder. Under current agreements among Ador shareholders, termination of artists’ exclusive contracts also requires board approval, as is the case for other major entertainment companies. Hybe reportedly sent a response rejecting this proposal as excessive.
Currently, Ador’s board of directors is made up of three parties, namely Min and his relatives, Vice President Shin and Director Kim, which means that Min exercises his right to full control of the sub-label. However, Hybe, the largest shareholder with 80% of the capital, could prevent a unilateral decision by Min by calling an extraordinary general meeting to replace the members of Ador’s board of directors.
If Min’s request to have discretion to terminate the exclusive contract is granted, Hybe will have no way to prevent the departure of the artists, NewJeans. Furthermore, Ador currently has only one group under his label, NewJeans. Hybe suspects that this request from Min is linked to a plot to turn Ador into a shell by terminating the contract with NewJeans as she said in a post on KakaoTalk that was seized by an internal audit carried out last month by the Hybe group on Ador.
According to the result of the internal audit published on April 25, a close friend of Min proposed six steps to take for the total acquisition of Ador’s stakes: I. the exercise of a resale option on January 2, 2025, II. Ador becomes an empty shell, III. the search for new financial investors, IV. ask Hybe to sell Ador, V. the acquisition of all stakes in Ador by CEO Min with the money coming from the resale of the option held by Min.
On the Min side, she declared during a press conference given on April 25: “I have no interest in misappropriating power, I don’t even understand what that really means” and “for NewJeans, it is obvious that we must (work) together”. According to Min, during a one-on-one meeting with Hybe Group CEO Park Ji-won on January 25, she requested the exclusive right to decide on important issues, including the power to select subcontractors and the signing of contracts with artists. Then, Min’s law firm sent Hybe an amended contract containing the above request on February 16.
Additionally, the Ador CEO stated that “Hybe recently made public a KakaoTalk message from Ador’s Deputy CEO claiming that there is a need to acquire control of the company. […] But this message dates from April 4 and it does not correspond to the time of the facts and has nothing to do with the accusation of the Hybe group. Min Hee-jin said the contents of the messages made public by Hybe were “private conversations.”
She added: “This is further evidence that Hybe is distorting the truth and manipulating information to wage a media battle,” “I do not have the intention and desire to gain power to control society . […] I will have to go together (with the members of NewJeans) if I think of the girl band NewJeans.
