Ador announced its official position through its legal representative, Sejong, on May 2nd.
Regarding the reason for deciding to announce this statement, Ador said, "Ador has not responded so far in order to protect its value and not interfere with artist activities even after HYBE's rebuttal. However, unconfirmed content continues to spread and spread to the public. “As confusion is increasing, we are delivering an official statement to provide accurate facts about the controversial areas, and we hope this will help resolve the speculations and misunderstandings.”
Ador said, “The usurpation of management rights claimed by HYBE is a vain claim with no substance,” and added, “First of all, CEO Min Hee-jin said at a press conference that the incentive, not salary, was 2 billion won. In just two years after the establishment of Ador, 33.5 billion won. As stated at the press conference, the issue raised when calculating the incentive was not the amount itself, but the criteria for determining the incentive and the transparency of the decision process. It was thought that the standards were not clear and that there was a lack of clear explanation of the process of calculating incentives, distorting the facts regarding incentives and confusing the issue by mentioning CEO Min Hee-jin's salary, incentives, and stock compensation. “I can’t help but see that CEO Min Hee-jin is trying to create a false frame that she is driven by financial desires,” he said.
Next, regarding the process of internal reporting and auditing, he said, "I would like to ask a question. What kind of listed company would publicize the details of an audit that should have been conducted privately, and even edit out content that has not been verified and report it as if it were a real-time broadcast? Moreover, The label's artist was about to make a comeback, but the exercise of this right to audit caused serious obstacles to the work of CEO Min Hee-jin and Adore members, who were working day and night ahead of New Jeans' comeback. He explained, “They claim that they are providing laptops and downloading existing data to ensure that there is no disruption to work, but this is not true, and the process of confiscating the vice presidents’ laptops without giving them time to download existing work data was also not common sense.”
Ador's side stated that HYBE's claims were not true regarding HYBE's promise to debut New Jeans as the first girl group, but not keeping the promise and debuting Le Sseraphim, as well as the fact that the company ordered the group not to promote New Jeans upon their debut.
Regarding the claim that the contract between HYBE and Min Hee-jin was not a so-called 'slave contract,' Ador said, "CEO Min Hee-jin is not denying the necessity of the non-competition clause itself. As the representative of a company engaged in the entertainment business, “I am well aware that I may be prohibited from engaging in competitive business for a certain period of time, but the target business and period of the prohibition must be reasonable, and the current shareholder agreement does not do so,” he explained.
He continued, “The irrationality of the current shareholder contract lies in the fact that CEO Min Hee-jin can be free from the non-competition clause that requires her to no longer hold stocks, and it would be natural for anyone to try to resolve this unfairness.” HYBE said. In the rebuttal, it is said that in December of last year, a response was sent saying, 'There was a difference in interpretation of the sale-related clause in the contract, and we will resolve the clause with ambiguous interpretation.' It is said that it sent a response in December last year saying that it would continue to be subject to the non-competition obligation until it disposes of all stocks with HYBE's consent, but it was not until mid-March of this year that the amendment proposal was included. “I was able to receive it,” he added.
He also expressed his official position regarding follow-up reports on other interstate contracts. Ador said, “HYBE is misleading the public by saying that CEO Min Hee-jin insisted on a 30 multiple regarding the put option, as if the current conflict was motivated by financial motives. However, the 30 multiple reflects the value of future boy group production. “It was only one of the proposals in the process of changing the contract between shareholders, which had various unreasonable elements, and it was not a priority item for negotiation,” he said.
Ador's side said, "HYBE promised an additional 10% of Ador's shares as a stock option to CEO Min Hee-jin at the time of signing the stock sale agreement and shareholder agreement in March last year. However, as a result of legal advice, the stock option was granted to Min Hee-jin, who is a major shareholder under the Commercial Act. We learned that it was impossible to grant these stock options to CEO Min Hee-jin, and that it was a matter of trust that CEO Min Hee-jin had suggested. did.
He continued, "Hive offered to release the non-competition obligation, and CEO Min Hee-jin said he refused, but this is also not true. Hive is obligated to serve for 8 years and has a non-compete obligation for 1 year after retirement, and the put option is It was proposed that the event be divided into stages according to the period, but while the shareholder contract negotiations were in progress, controversy related to Eyelet arose and CEO Min Hee-jin has not communicated his position regarding Hive's proposal. “It is not true that I expressed my intention to refuse,” he added.
In addition, Ador's side responded to HYBE's claim that Min Hee-jin relied on shamans to run the company, saying, "The success of New Jeans and the amazing performance that Ador achieved in a short period of time were based on rational management decision-making. These claims support Hive's claim that Adore's success It appears that this frame is being framed to disparage and deny Adore's sales and operating profits by preventing unnecessary expenditures, managing the budget efficiently, and increasing its value as they claim. If it is possible, why are CEO Min Hee-jin and the members of Adore working hard day and night? Hive, which is supposed to lead K-POP, tried to frame it as a personal slander that is unrelated to the issue and is not worth responding to. “It’s pathetic that it was announced right before CEO Min Hee-jin’s press conference,” he said.
Lastly, "Adore will continue to do its best to support Newgenes' activities in the future. If Hive wants to protect IP, as it has claimed, and if it truly cares about the interests of shareholders, it will stop engaging in unconvincing black propaganda and allow Adore to fully create creative content." “I hope that we will show common sense and support so that we can focus on this,” he emphasized.