Shares in South Korean leisure big Hybe plummeted yesterday after members of the corporate’s preeminent Ok-pop lady group NewJeans introduced they have been splitting from the agency. Hybe, which can also be house to boy band BTS and trades on the Korean Inventory trade, misplaced almost 7% in market worth on the information and closed the day 4% down.
On Thursday, the 5 NewJeans members held a press convention saying they have been terminating their contract with Hybe, which owns the ADOR label that represents the band. NewJeans’s announcement comes after months of rigidity with the corporate.
The Ok-pop band is likely one of the biggest global sensations to return out of South Korea since BTS and Blackpink. Launched in 2022, NewJeans generated $83 million in 2023 income for ADOR through album gross sales, dwell occasions, and model partnerships with heavyweights together with Apple, Coca-Cola, and Nike. NewJeans’s stratospheric success is broadly credited to the orchestration of the band’s artistic director, Min Hee-jin.
Earlier than her departure from ADOR, Min served as CEO and producer for NewJeans, overseeing each the enterprise and artistic path for the band. In a rare, multi-hour interview last year with Quick Firm—earlier than these controversies began—she spoke about pushing again on the stress placed on younger Ok-pop artists, who typically practice with labels fairly than attend faculty.
“I wish to [help] them make enjoyable, joyful recollections—one thing that they’ll actually look again on and luxuriate in even once they develop previous,” Min mentioned. “I feel whenever you’re working with such younger women and [you’re] any person who owns this enterprise, you must have an moral sense of thoughts. What I wished to do was, similar to faculty, I wished to show them ways in which would assist them dwell a extremely joyful life afterward.”
Earlier this yr, Hybe tried to push Min out of the ADOR label. The battle has seen accusations fly on each side, together with alleged mistreatment on the firm’s palms in opposition to NewJeans’s members. For its half, the band has stayed firmly on the facet of Min.
And now the band has introduced they’ll terminate their contract with Hybe in protest of the corporate’s dispute with Min, reports the Yonhap Information Company.
“Neither Hybe nor ADOR have proven any willingness to enhance the scenario or settle for our calls for,” the band mentioned at a press convention. “ADOR lacks each the need and the flexibility to guard NewJeans.”
“There’s nothing we will acquire professionally from staying right here, so the 5 of us see no purpose to stay at ADOR,” the NewJeans member often called Hanni mentioned on the occasion.
In response to the band’s announcement, Hybe issued a press release wherein it mentioned, “We remorse that the press convention on the termination of the contract passed off with out enough consideration, and even earlier than we gave our response to the demand letter.” The assertion additionally claimed that “As a celebration to the unique contract, ADOR has not violated the phrases, and a unilateral declare that belief has been damaged doesn’t represent legitimate grounds for termination of a contract.”
NewJeans’s announcement of their intent to terminate their contract comes amid a down yr for Hybe. With BTS on hiatus whereas members full their navy service and sluggish gross sales of different artists, Hybe’s income for the the primary 9 months of 2024 was down almost 40% yr over yr. Its inventory worth has fallen 16% for the reason that starting of the yr.