Min Hee-jin Denies HYBE’s Claim Of ADOR Attempting To Take Control Of Management

In a telephone interview with Daily Sports on April 23rd, Min Hee-jin said, “I’ve never tried to take over the management rights of ADOR as claimed by HYBE. How can I do that with only 18% shares?”.

She continued, “HYBE has been holding 80% shares in the first place so it’s impossible for me to take over the management rights of ADOR. Without the consent of HYBE, the largest shareholder, it is impossible for ADOR to become independent from the corporation. I find it hard to understand why HYBE claimed that I tried to do something impossible”.

Earlier, HYBE sent an audit questionnaire with circumstantial evidence that the current executives of ADOR, including CEO Min Hee-jin, have been conspiring with each other to take control of the management, suspecting them of consulting with external sources and pointing out irregularities in hiring personnel. Apart from the audit questionnaire, HYBE also requested CEO Min Hee-jin to resign and organize a shareholders’ meeting to replace the ADOR’s current board of directors.

.HYBE’s sudden request was unexpected because NewJeans is about to make their comeback in Korea with a double single on May 24th and enter Tokyo Dome with a Japan debut and solo fanmeeting in June. Right after the news of HYBE and Min Hee-jin’s conflict spread, HYBE shares closed at 212,500 won, a decline of 7.81% from the previous trading day. Due to the significant drop in stock price, HYBE’s market capitalization reportedly lost 749.8 billion won.

Regarding a series of HYBE’s requests, including the sudden notification of the audit questionnaire, Min Hee-jin said, “Because I filed an internal complaint about HYBE from a month ago until last week.” Regarding ADOR’s stance, she said, “After I raised concerns over various issues, such as ILLIT (a group that just debuted under another HYBE label BELIFT Lab) copying NewJeans”.

CEO Min said, “ADOR asked HYBE for their position on the internal accusation and objection we submitted by the 24th but HYBE countered”. She firmly claimed, “If my purpose was money, I wouldn’t have filed such internal accusation and objection in the first place. HYBE seems to have framed ADOR as attempting to acquire management rights. FIFTY-FIFTY set a precedent? I don’t do such stupid things”.

Min Hee-jin confessed, “I’m surprised to see HYBE do this at a really important time for NewJeans. This happened while we were waiting for HYBE’s response four days after filing the internal accusation and objection”. She continued, “It’s strange that articles came out at the same time with the notification of an audit, instead of an announcement of results after the audit. I wonder what their intention was that they had to urgently publish articles unrelated to the issue I raised.”

She emphasized, “I was worried about making a statement right ahead of NewJeans’s album because it might interfere with the comeback that has been carefully prepared. However, if I don’t make any statement at all, further attacks and suspicions will arise. Therefore, I tried to minimize the damage”, adding “HYBE doesn’t seem to have any consideration of the artists’ conditions and schedule. I don’t want to spark unnecessary public opinion so I’m considering the best way to react due to an important schedule ahead.”

In addition, Min Hee-jin said, “I hoped to resolve matters with HYBE through internal reports but the sudden attack left me dumbfounded. Seeing HYBE’s articles and aggressive actions today, I feel like they are trying to divert public attention away from the main problem”, adding “I’ve been receiving attacks both internally and externally. I never thought I would use this expression, but it’s like David and Goliath’s battle. If you understand my attitude toward what I’ve done so far, you will understand the essence of the issue”.

Meanwhile, HYBE has set the deadline for CEO Min Hee-jin and ADOR executives to answer the audit questionnaire on April 23rd. As such, it seems to be challenging to solve the intense conflict between HYBE and its label ADOR over the management issues.