ADOR shareholders’ meeting retains Min Hee-jin, appoints new board members from HYBE
Hybe’s headquarters in Yongsan, Seoul. Image: Yonhap via The Korea Herald
Three people recommended by HYBE were appointed as new board members of ADOR, a K-pop agency housing popular girl group NewJeans, on Friday, May 31, according to sources in the music industry.
The sources also said ADOR CEO Min Hee-jin retained her position during an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting held at an undisclosed place in Seoul, despite the meeting’s initial agenda to remove her.
The move follows a local court decision Thursday to grant an injunction to prevent HYBE, the label’s parent company, from exercising its voting rights in the shareholders’ meeting to dismiss her.
“The material evidence submitted to date does not sufficiently establish HYBE’s alleged grounds for (Min’s) dismissal,” the court ruled.
“It is clear that Min Hee-jin was looking for a way to get NewJeans out of HYBE’s control or to pressure HYBE to weaken its control over ADOR, and for her to gain independent control over ADOR. However, it is difficult to believe that she has moved beyond the stage of exploring such options to executing concrete action, and while her actions may be treacherous to HYBE, it is difficult to see that they constitute dereliction of her duty to ADOR,” the court added.
In a statement shortly thereafter, HYBE said that it respects the court’s judgment and that it will not exercise voting rights against Min. However, the company will take follow-up actions within the boundaries of the law in the future, the statement continued.
The court’s decision came as a surprise as the court was expected to find in favor of HYBE: Min’s attempt to prevent the parent company from exercising voting rights directly violates the basic purpose of the Commercial Act, which protects shareholder rights.
The sources identified the three new board members as HYBE’s Chief Human Resources Officer Kim Ju-young, Chief Strategy Officer Lee Jae-sang and Chief Financial Officer Lee Kyung-jun.
The board’s two previous members, identified only as Shin and Kim and who are Min’s close aides, were dismissed from their positions. (via Yonhap)
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