On August 27, ADOR - the company that manages the NewJeans group - announced that they had held a board meeting and appointed Kim Joo Young, internal director of ADOR, as the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO). .
Kim Joo Young is a human resources expert with experience in various industries and will focus on the stabilization and internal reorganization of ADOR.
Min Hee Jin resigned as CEO but remained an internal director at ADOR. She will also continue to produce for NewJeans.
In addition, ADOR will separate production and management departments to align with the “multi-brand” operating principles that are applied uniformly across all other HYBE subsidiaries.
Afterwards, SpoTV News said that HYBE Group terminated the shareholder contract with Min Hee Jin in July. Therefore, Min Hee Jin's stock sell option, valued at about 100 billion won, was revoked. invalid.
HYBE and Min Hee Jin have a shareholder contract that includes the right to secure the CEO position and stock options.
ADOR had to spend 4.13 billion won in 2022 for the launch of NewJeans. But in 2023, thanks to the skyrocketing reputation of NewJeans, the company earned an operating profit of 33.5 billion won.
If ADOR grows at the same rate, the amount the company is expected to earn by 2024 is approximately 70 billion won. If Min Hee Jin can exercise her stock options, she can expect a profit of 90-100 billion won.
Min Hee Jin retained her position as CEO of ADOR at the shareholder meeting on May 31, when the court accepted her request for a temporary ban on voting rights for HYBE.
But because the application for a restraining order at that time was only for Min Hee Jin herself, all the internal directors close to her at ADOR were fired by HYBE. HYBE appointed 3 new directors for ADOR: Kim Joo Young (Human Resources Director), Lee Jae Sang (Strategy Director), Lee Kyung Joon (Finance Director).
However, all of ADOR's new internal directors are personnel from HYBE, so they held a board meeting on August 27 and decided to replace the new CEO. ADOR announced that “Min Hee Jin resigned as CEO", but in reality, she was dismissed by HYBE.
In response to HYBE 's move , Min Hee Jin's lawyer argued: "The Board of Directors unilaterally decided to fire the CEO despite Min Hee Jin's wishes, this is a serious violation of the shareholders' agreement. winter.
The company announced that CEO Min Hee Jin would continue to produce for NewJeans, but this was not discussed with her and was a unilateral announcement from the company."
On the contrary, ADOR also responded to Min Hee Jin's objection. ADOR said that the August 27 board meeting was conducted legally in accordance with the procedures established by the Commerce Act and the company's charter, from announcing the agenda to processing the vote. The meeting schedule was set on the days that former CEO Min Hee Jin tried to delay.
