HYBE CEO Min Hee-jin’s 12 rebuttals at the press conference: “Blackmailing NewJeans by holding them hostage…The slave contract is not true” (Full text) – Kstyle

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HYBE has officially commented on the claims made by Min Hee Jin, the representative of their label ADOR.

Today (26th), an official press release states, “Regarding the statement made by ADOR’s representative at a press conference on the 25th, we will accurately convey the facts in order to protect shareholder value and IP protection.” An official comment was released.

The statement included “About the allegation that the seizure of management rights was a joke or a private conversation,” “About the allegation that financial compensation was small,” and “About the allegation that there was no reply to the whistleblowing email and an audit was immediately initiated.” ” “Regarding the claim that there was no guidance regarding the return of information assets” “Regarding the claim that he promised to let them debut as the first girl group” “Regarding the claim that he was told not to promote New Jeans when they debuted” “In response to claims that NewJeans is neglecting public relations” “About slave contract claims” “ESG management (a management method that emphasizes the environment, society, and governance)” “About the assertion that there was no attempt at dialogue” “About the assertion that the shrine maidens (Mudan, Shaman) are just friends” “Why at this time of comeback…HYBE values ​​New Jeans… 12 rebuttals have been written, including “About the claim that this is not true.”

At a press conference the day before, CEO Min Hee-jin claimed that HYBE was neglecting the promotion of New Jeans. In this regard, HYBE said, “HYBE’s communication organization is doing its best to promote NewJeans. Last year, NewJeans alone created and distributed 273 press releases. Even compared to BIGHIT MUSIC, which had a total of 8 groups and individuals, with 659 cases, and Pledis Entertainment, which had 4 groups, including SEVENTEEN, with 365 cases, it is difficult to claim that they were only neglecting New Jeans’ PR. Our PR will do our best to inform all labels and artists without discrimination.”

Continuing, in response to representative Min Hee-jin’s claim that “the non-compete clause in the shareholders’ agreement concluded with HYBE is in fact a slave contract,” she said, “The non-compete clause in the shareholders’ agreement is subject to the obligation of confidentiality. However, CEO Min mentioned this at a press conference: A non-compete clause is a clause required by the buyer to prevent unfair competition from starting in the same industry after a shareholder sells their shares. This is a common clause in any industry.”

He also said, “It is not true that he was tied up forever. Representative Min will be able to sell his shares from November this year, and if he sells his shares, he will be unable to do so from November 2026, when his service contract with the company expires.” It does not fall under the prohibition of competition.The company will be guaranteed a large amount of money, which CEO Min himself said, “Even if you do nothing, you will earn 100 billion yen (approximately 10 billion yen),” a condition that will allow you to convert it into cash and start your business from next year onwards. can’t be called a slave contract at all.It’s an extremely unimaginable remuneration condition for the general public.In addition, the Kakao Talk conversation that Representative Min had with his aides included a put option on January 2, 2025. It states that they will exercise the contract and exit.”

He continued, “In the case of the sale-related clause in the contract that Representative Min claims is a slave contract, there are differences in interpretation as to whether or not the two clauses have priority. In December of last year, they had already sent a response saying, “We’ll fix it so it doesn’t become a problem.” Although Representative Min said, “I’m not interested in money,” the main issue that sparked the debate was the scale of compensation. ” he added.

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1. Regarding the claim that the seizure of management rights was a joke or a private conversation

Conversation records and business diaries contain records of discussions over several months with the same objective in mind. When a private conversation occurs several times over a long period of time and involves the intervention of a third party, it no longer becomes a private conversation, but a plan and its execution. In addition, the deputy representative with whom I had a dialogue is a certified public accountant with specialized knowledge of corporate control structures, and is a person who has facilitated HYBE’s listing and numerous M&As. They are also ADOR’s core management team who are in a position to check all of the company’s financial information. This kind of vice president wrote down the CEO’s remarks in his business diary, saying, “I will eventually break out.” I can’t say it’s a joke.

Several documents have been discovered that have calculated the amount of money that can be obtained by exercising a put option, clearly specified the timing of the action, and used terms such as rights infringement lawsuit, investment company, and public opinion battle in a timely manner. Don’t pass it off as a joke. There is even a record of him instructing his deputy, “This must be treated as a private conversation.”

2. Regarding the claim that financial compensation was small

Representative Min claimed that his annual salary is 2 billion won (approximately 200 million yen). More precisely, the incentive for 23 years of performance is 2 billion won, and the annual salary and long-term incentives are formulated separately. This is by far the highest annual salary among the members of HYBE’s headquarters and Korean subsidiary.

In addition to the annual salary, HYBE offered significant stock compensation. The value of stocks is a large amount that is difficult for the general public to imagine. Even so, Representative Min re-offered an amount that the company could not accept, leading to the collapse of the dialogue. We view this process as creating the basis for independent management rights.

3. Regarding the claim that there was no reply to the whistleblowing email and that an audit was immediately initiated.

We sent a detailed response on 6 A4 pages at 10:01am on April 22nd. We also confirmed that Representative Min read the response around 12:00 pm on the day he received it. However, CEO Min has repeatedly claimed that there was “no answer” in both her official comments and press conferences.

The audit was conducted after becoming aware of an attempt to seize management rights over several months through internal and external information and confirming that confidential management documents had been leaked. It is not advisable to announce the audit schedule for major matters in advance.

4. Regarding the claim that there was no guidance regarding the return of information assets

We visited the company’s workroom and home in Mapo-gu, Seoul at 10 a.m. on April 22 to collect information assets as part of the audit procedure. During this process, we contacted him several times via wired phone, email, and cell phone message, but Representative Min did not respond. At 6 p.m. on the 23rd, when the return deadline had expired, we again requested the return of the information assets through the ADOR deputy representative. The vice president replied, “Representative Min is busy so I can’t do it.” It would be an irresponsible lie to conclude that the return of information assets was learned through the media without any notice and that this was a media play (using the media to one’s advantage).

The claim that his computer assets were taken away so that he could not work ahead of his comeback is also false. We issue new laptops as soon as they are returned and allow us to download existing materials to ensure that work continues without interruption. Other auditees have also been issued with new equipment and are working.

5. Regarding the claim that she promised to let them debut as the first girl group

This is the part that I have already answered in detail to the email I sent to Representative Min on the 22nd. The reason why Representative Min claims that he did not receive an email seems to be precisely because he is unable to make such provocative but untrue claims after looking at the responses. We have sent a detailed response as below.

Representative Min has also made false claims about the separation process from SOURCE MUSIC based on his own distorted analytical thinking. The reason New Jeans hasn’t become HYBE’s first girl group is not because HYBE hasn’t kept its promises. At the time, CEO Min strongly insisted that she take full responsibility and allow her to form a team, but that she would debut under her own separate label. HYBE respects CEO Min’s opinion, has these members transferred to ADOR despite SOURCE MUSIC’s opposition, supports them with a huge amount of 16 billion won, and has decided to allow Newsen to debut in the way CEO Min wants. I made it possible. Due to the company splitting and contract transfer during this process, NewJeans’ debut schedule had to be delayed regardless of HYBE’s intentions. However, CEO Min himself revealed this process. In an interview with a media outlet published on March 24, 2022, CEO Min announced that the girl group project will proceed according to his own plans and that the project will be launched in the third quarter of 2022. He even answered, “A rushed debut would put a big burden on the young members.We didn’t want to do everything too quickly, so we decided to launch at a reasonable time, the third quarter of 2022.”

6. Regarding the claim that he was told not to promote NewJeans when he debuted.

Due to the R&R dispute between SOURCE MUSIC and CEO Min, New Jeans’ debut schedule has been postponed, and LE SSERAFIM, prepared by SOURCE MUSIC, will debut first. Since both teams are continuing to debut and there is not enough time to fully promote each other, we have decided to set a promotion period of the minimum schedule period. In addition, in the case of LE SSERAFIM member Sakura Miyawaki, even before she signed with HYBE, there were many articles about her transfer to HYBE. Under these circumstances, if ADOR’s debut team is made up of only new members, there is a risk that the fact that Sakura Miyawaki will be joining SOURCE MUSIC and information about New Jeans’ member composition will be exposed as well. there was.We made a request to protect all the news value of both teams, but even this was shortened midway through and we decided to start promoting NewJeans.

Regarding this, we have already received the following response via email.

Additionally, this interview with CEO Min was published two months before LE SSERAFIM’s debut (May 22, 2022), and CEO Min has already had enough time with the new girl group. You can see that we were able to advertise with sufficient margin. Representative Min’s assertion is very different from the perception of members who are well aware of the full support and concessions SOURCE MUSIC and HYBE have given to ADOR’s success.

7. Regarding the claim that NewJeans’ public relations are negligent

I received an email saying that this allegation was also a whistleblowing, and I responded in detail as follows.

HYBE communication organization is doing its best to promote NewJeans. Over the last year, NewJeans alone created and distributed 273 press releases. Even when compared to BIGHIT MUSIC’s 659 cases, where 8 groups including BTS and individuals were active, and Pledis Entertainment’s 365 cases, where 4 groups such as SEVENTEEN were active, it is by no means “neglecting New Jeans’ PR”. cannot be claimed. Our PR does our best to promote all labels and artists without discrimination.

8.About the slave contract claim

Representative Min mentioned this at the press conference, although there is an obligation to maintain confidentiality in the non-compete clause in the shareholder agreement. A non-compete is a clause required by the buyer to prevent unfair competition by starting a business in the same industry after selling the stock held by the shareholder. This is a common clause in any industry.

It is not true that we are “bound forever.” Representative Min will be able to sell his shares from November of this year, and if he sells his shares, his service contract with the company will expire in November 2026, so the non-compete clause will not apply.

The contract is guaranteed to be so large that CEO Min himself said, “Even if you sit still, you will earn 100 billion yen,” and the conditions are such that you can convert it into cash and start a business the year after next, so it cannot be called a slave contract. The compensation conditions are unimaginable to the average person.

Furthermore, a KakaoTalk conversation that Representative Min had with a close aide states that he will exercise a put option and exit on January 2, 2025.

In the case of the sale-related clause in the contract that Representative Min claims is a slave contract, there are differences in the interpretation of the priority of the two clauses. “If the interpretation is ambiguous, the ambiguous clause should be resolved to avoid problems. I already sent a reply saying “I’ll fix it” in December last year. Representative Min said that he was not interested in money, but the central issue that sparked the debate was the amount of compensation.

9.About ESG management claims

Our company practices ESG management activities within the scope of our ability to promote them. Regarding the eco-album that the company has worked so hard to promote, CEO Min ridiculed it, saying, “The melting photo card is a joke.” We had to invest significant manpower and money to convert the plastic material of our digital albums to paper, and to convert our album cases and photo cards to environmentally friendly, biodegradable materials. ESG management is about accepting this and investing in it. We are promoting the expansion of the application of environmentally friendly albums to all labels under HYBE, but internal staff are well aware that ADOR is the most uncooperative label.

10. Regarding the claim that there was no attempt at dialogue

HYBE has been having ongoing discussions with Representative Min regarding changes to the shareholder agreement, but the discussions were suspended when HYBE received an inquiry that Representative Min claimed was whistleblowing. However, HYBE responded honestly to the issues raised by Representative Min, which he claimed were whistleblowing. However, at the time when the shareholder agreement was being discussed, Representative Min actually recruited HYBE’s internal lawyer and accountant behind the scenes, advised him on how to raise the issue in the form of changing the shareholder agreement and whistleblowing, and was advised by the law firm that he should raise the issue in the form of changing the shareholder agreement and whistleblowing. The audit confirmed that the company had been in contact with institutional investors and discussed taking over management rights.

11. Regarding the claim that the shrine maiden is just a friend

External personnel who intervene in detail in overall management cannot simply be viewed as friends.

During the conversation, information such as the undisclosed number of stock options for executives, the names of potential investors, and the structure for acquiring management rights, including the shareholding ratio of each investor, was exchanged, and Miko’s proposals regarding various management issues were discussed. I made a decision based on that. Such a conversation partner cannot be viewed as a simple acquaintance. The company takes seriously the fact that important company information was indiscreetly disclosed to outsiders who were not affiliated with the company, that they interfered in decision-making, and that they were even offered employment.

12. Regarding the claim that HYBE doesn’t value New Jeans at the time of their comeback…

Upon NewJeans’ comeback, it was CEO Min who started attacking the company via email. The materials secured through forensics (searching for legal evidence useful in criminal investigations from archived document files, access logs, etc.) contain instructions from Representative Min to prepare for a public opinion war starting in April. There are also records of him “creating noise and causing trouble to the company.” If you put pressure on the company at this time, you might want to ask whether you thought the company would accept your almost impossible compensation request.

In reality, it is CEO Min who is holding the artists hostage and blackmailing the company. They hope that the compensation proposal is accepted, and if it is not, they will use it as an excuse to end the relationship.

For many years, our company has compromised and accepted Mr. Min’s repeated demands, but this time we learned that these demands were part of a so-called “build-up” process to seize management rights, regardless of the timing. In order to protect the value of multi-label, we had no choice but to conduct an audit. The reason we often suggest not mentioning artists in press conferences or interviews is because we value the value of our artists.