Min Hee-jin during a press conference in central Seoul on May 31 (JOINT PRESS CORPS)

Min Hee-jin, the former CEO of ADOR, claims that she was illegally forced out of her position by the company’s board, but the market reacted positively to the board’s decision.

HYBE shares opened at 183,700 won ($138) on Wednesday morning, up 3.9 percent from the previous trading session, after reports emerged that Min had “stepped down” as CEO of ADOR but would remain a board member and producer of NewJeans.

ADOR also announced that the company would begin separating production and management under the new leadership. Min had previously headed both management and production of the girl group NewJeans, “as the only exception among all HYBE labels,” ADOR said.

“The separation of management and production will complement the multi-label system,” said Kim Min-young, analyst at Meritz Securities.

“The court’s decision in the ongoing cases is crucial. If the shareholder agreements (between Min Hee-jin and HYBE) are declared void, the risk and market fatigue can be mitigated.”

Min Hee-jin during a press conference in central Seoul on May 31 (JOINT PRESS CORPS)

According to reports on Tuesday, the ADOR board was able to remove Min as CEO because HYBE had initiated the process of terminating the shareholder agreements between the two parties. The agreement stipulated that Min would remain CEO of ADOR until November 2026 and that she could require HYBE to buy 75 percent of her ADOR shares – a process known as a put option.

According to media reports, HYBE sent Min a letter last month informing her of the termination of the contract and submitted the necessary documents to the court to confirm the termination.

However, according to her legal representation by the law firm Shin & Kim, Min never agreed to the termination of the contract and HYBE has no legal basis to terminate the contract.

“We emphasize that the decision (to remove Min Hee-jin as CEO of ADOR) violates the shareholders’ agreement and directly contradicts the court ruling,” the law firm said in a statement on Wednesday morning.

Kim Ju-young, the new CEO of ADOR (ADOR)

The law firm cited a court ruling in May that said HYBE did not have the right to use its controlling shareholding powers to remove Min from her post because she had not committed any crimes against HYBE.

HYBE attempted to remove Min as ADOR’s CEO during a board meeting on May 31, but only succeeded in replacing two ADOR board members with three HYBE executives: current HYBE CEO Lee Jae-sang, current ADOR CEO and HYBE HR chief Kim Ju-young, and HYBE CFO Lee Kyung-jun.

“The board meeting was also called in a problematic way,” Shin & Kim continued.

“ADOR rules state that board members must be given one week’s notice of a meeting. However, the rules were changed so that notice could only be given one day before, during the provisional board meeting. We strongly suspect that this was intended to depose the CEO and deprive her of the opportunity to prepare.”

According to the law firm, Min is considering possible legal action but has not yet made a decision as her deportation took place just one day earlier.

BY YOON SO-YEON ([email protected])