ADOR rejects HYBE's demand for board meeting, calls request 'illegal'

Girl group NewJeans' agency ADOR will not hold its board meeting on Tuesday as requested by its 80-percent stakeholder HYBE last week.

Min Hee-jin, producer of girl group NewJeans and the CEO of its agency ADOR, during a press conference held in southern Seoul on April 25 [YONHAP]

Girl group NewJeans' agency ADOR will not hold its board meeting on Tuesday as requested by its 80-percent stakeholder HYBE last week.

ADOR said Monday that it will not convene a board meeting, which HYBE requested last Monday after starting an internal audit against the company. HYBE claimed that ADOR's CEO and NewJeans' producer Min Hee-jin was trying to hijack its control over ADOR by getting a third-party investor involved.

HYBE demanded that a board meeting take place in order to open up a shareholders' meeting, ultimately to ask shareholders to agree to fire Min as CEO.

"A board meeting requested by an audit is only valid as long as it's to report the results of the audit, so [HYBE's] request for this board meeting is not legal," Min said in an email to HYBE. "And on that, we have decided not to hold the board meeting."

HYBE already filed a court request on Thursday to convene an extraordinary shareholders' meeting, the same day that it reported Min to the police for breach of trust.

A court decision typically comes four to five weeks later. The company is mandated to open up a board meeting and a shareholders' meeting within 15 days of the decision.

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]