Ador CEO's dismissal to be decided on last day of May

Amid the ongoing dispute between Hybe and its subsidiary Ador, the latter held a board meeting on Friday and decided to convene an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders on May 31. Ador also claimed that Hybe conducted an illegal audit Thursday night.

Ador's Friday board meeting lasted about 10 minutes and was attended by company executives, including CEO Min Hee-jin, and the auditor appointed by Hybe. At the extraordinary general meeting scheduled for the last day of May, discussions about the dismissal of CEO Min Hee-jin are expected to take place.

With Hybe owning 80 percent of Ador's shares, observers sa that CEO Min is unlikely to avoid dismissal. However, if Min's injunction against voting rights, filed against Hybe on Tuesday, is accepted by the court, Hybe will be unable to express its intentions at the extraordinary general meeting.

Meanwhile, in a statement issued this morning, Ador criticized Hybe for conducting an illegal audit against Ador's styling directing team leader. "Hybe's audit team began auditing Ador's styling directing team leader at around 7 p.m. on Thursday after work hours. The audit continued for over 5 hours, extending past midnight."

"The audit exceeded the scope of work by following the employee home and demanding not only a laptop but also personal cell phones, which are not company-owned," continued the statement.

According to Ador, Hybe conducted the audit based on suspicions of embezzlement in the contractual relationship between Ador and the NewJeans Styling Directing team leader.

Hybe raised concerns about the employee receiving advertising fees instead of incentives from Ador, which Ador explained did not result in financial loss to the company and was handled according to industry norms. Ador also emphasized that this information had already been shared with Hybe in February.

Hybe stated, "claiming an ordinary audit to be 'illegal' is problematic," and announced that it would issue an accurate statement shortly.