SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA - NOVEMBER 28: Haerin, Danielle, Hanni, Minji and Hyein of miss radical NewJeans be the property league connected November 28, 2024 successful Seoul, South Korea. K-pop miss radical NewJeans clasp a property league an announcement connected the termination of their declaration with their bureau Ador.
Chung Sung-jun | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images
South Korea's largest K-pop bureau Hybe mislaid implicit $423 cardinal successful marketplace headdress connected Friday aft rookie radical NewJeans announced it was terminating its contract with Hybe sub-label ADOR.
The announcement, which follows a months-long absorption quality betwixt ADOR and Hybe, sent the company's shares plunging arsenic overmuch arsenic 6.97% connected Friday.
The five-member miss group, formed successful 2022, said successful a property league precocious Thursday that it was leaving the agency, claiming ADOR had breached its declaration with the band.
"Staying present would beryllium a discarded of clip and would lone bring pain, mentally," radical subordinate Hanni said.
"There is thing we tin summation professionally from staying here, truthful the 5 of america spot nary crushed to stay astatine ADOR," according to a translation by South Korean media outlet Yonhap.
Two weeks ago, NewJeans had sent a ineligible announcement to Hybe with a database of demands, including reinstating erstwhile ADOR CEO Min Hee-jin, failing which, the radical members threatened to terminate their contracts.
South Korean media outlet JoongAng Ilbo had besides reported that the database of demands included "dealing with" a Hybe interior study that said to "get escaped of NewJeans and commencement anew."
Hanni besides said determination was "mistreatment not conscionable toward america but besides toward our staff, countless preventions and contradictions, deliberate miscommunication, and manipulation regarding aggregate areas." She did not elaborate further.
Hanni had reportedly testified to South Korea's parliament successful October, claiming she had experienced workplace harassment astatine the label.
"This is not the benignant of enactment ethic we respect nor privation to beryllium a portion of, and to proceed moving nether a institution with nary volition of protecting NewJeans would lone bash america harm," she said astatine the property conference.
In April, Hybe accused past ADOR CEO Min Hee-jin of attempting to instrumentality the sublabel independent.
Min had denied the allegations and denounced Hybe, saying they had copied the conception of NewJeans to usage successful different miss set nether a antithetic Hybe subsidiary.
Min stepped down arsenic ADOR CEO successful August, but remained arsenic a manager of the company, earlier resigning from that presumption arsenic good connected Nov. 20.
The radical has go 1 of K-Pop's astir fashionable faces erstwhile it debuted successful 2022, winning galore accolades astatine South Korean grant shows. In 2024, NewJeans had besides won the Group of the Year Award astatine Billboard's Women successful Music ceremony.
Billboard's citation said the radical scored entries crossed 10 Billboard charts, including the Billboard Hot 100, Billboard 200, and Billboard Global 200.
Hybe nett net plunged astir 99% twelvemonth connected twelvemonth in the 3rd 4th of 2024, with analysts saying income shrank owed to constricted artists and activities during the 2024 Olympics, portion profitability was besides wounded by higher costs owed to the motorboat of KATSEYE, a localized radical successful the U.S.
Hybe shares person mislaid 15.72% truthful acold this twelvemonth amid a wider downtrend successful the industry, with each of the "Big Four" K-pop agencies seeing shares drop.
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