Recently, the K-pop girl group NewJeans organised a press conference to announce its contract termination with ADOR. Following this, the parent label, HYBE, which also manages other celebrated K-pop bands including BTS witnessed a major dip in its market cap. Following the press conference, the label issued that the girl group had no legitimate grounds to announce contract termination. However, a big financial blow has now hit HYBE, amounting to almost half a billion dollars.

On November 28, NewJeans, comprising Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin, and Hyein, held an emergency press conference in Samseong-dong, Seoul. They made the move to address their concerns regarding their contract with ADOR. The group announced the termination of their contract with ADOR. This comes after a lengthy feud between former ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin and parent label HYBE. The termination was effective November 29 at Midnight EST. For the unversed, after a lengthy dispute, Min Hee Jin announced her resignation effective November 20.

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Now, as per CNBC, HYBE’s market capitalisation is seeing a whopping dip of $423 million. Notably, the label is the biggest K-pop agency in South Korea and has several subsidiaries including ADOR. The label is also responsible for managing the globally renowned K-pop boy band, BTS.

At the conference, the members took turns explaining the rationality behind their decision and the group’s future. They revealed that they sent a letter of certification on November 13. It asked ADOR to rectify the significant breaches of the exclusive contract within 14 days. Moreover, they iterated that the failure to meet the demands might result in the termination of their contract.

The K-pop group said, “ADOR does not have the will or ability to protect NewJeans. If we remain here, it will be a waste of our time, and our mental distress will continue. More than anything, there is nothing that we can gain in terms of our work, so the five of us think that there is no reason at all for us to remain at ADOR.”

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In response, ADOR issued a statement saying that NewJeans has no grounds to announce their terminations. Moreover, the agency still wants the group to continue working together. The statement read, “We regret that a press conference to announce the termination of the exclusive contract was planned and conducted even before receiving a response to the certification of contents and without sufficient review. ADOR, as a part of the exclusive contracts, has not violated the contracts. And claiming that trust has been unilaterally broken does not constitute grounds for termination.”

Additionally, the label also added, “We hope that even now, we can open our hearts and have sincere conversations together. ADOR will do our best to support NewJeans in their activities and help them grow further as global artists.”