Min Hee-jin, the former CEO of K-pop label ADOR, reiterated Thursday her opposition to her removal from the position by the company’s board, insisting that her shareholders’ agreement with parent company Hybe, which guarantees her term, remains valid.
ADOR’s board of directors removed Min from her role as CEO on Tuesday, appointing fellow board member Kim Ju-young as her replacement. Min still had more than two years remaining on her five-year term under the contract.
Min instantly contested her dismissal, calling the decision “unilateral” and in direct violation of the shareholders’ agreement and the court injunction prohibiting the exercise of Hybe’s voting rights to dismiss Min during a shareholders’ meeting in May.
ADOR’s former CEO Min Hee-jin is seen in this file photo taken May 31, 2024. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)
The replacement followed months of a conflict between the K-pop powerhouse and Min, centered on allegations that she had plotted to seize control of ADOR and take its popular girl group NewJe
ans with her, which she has denied.
Hybe and Min currently are the largest and second-largest shareholders of the label, holding 80 percent and 18 percent of its shares, respectively.
Before her removal, Hybe had notified Min of the termination of the shareholders’ agreement signed between the two sides and filed a lawsuit to confirm its termination.
If the lawsuit is successful, Min would lose her basis for reclaiming the CEO position and a put option worth around 100 billion won (US$74.8 million), promised under the agreement.
“The shareholders’ agreement remains valid as do her put option rights,” a lawyer for Min said in a statement Thursday.
“She has never breached the agreement, and this has been confirmed by the court’s decision to grant the injunction. Therefore, Hybe has no right to terminate the agreement, and its notification of the agreement’s termination is invalid.”
The lawyer argued that it is Min who now holds the right to terminate the contract as Hybe violated it by having other ADOR b
oard members dismiss her.
Source: Yonhap News Agency
