Famous Journalist And Critics Criticize Min Hee-jin For Saying She Is Under A Slave Contract

Journalist Kim Eo-jun hosted a segment titled “Entertainment Dispute Over NewJeans” on his YouTube on April 29, featuring economic critic Park Si-dong. Throughout the segment, Kim talked about the alleged takeover of ADOR’s management rights of CEO Min Hee-jin, which was accused by HYBE.

Park explained about the background of ADOR’s establishment, “The company was created by HYBE with a full investment of 16.1 billion won,” adding, “CEO Min Hee-jin demanded a bonus after she created a global hit group called NewJeans, and received 18% of ADOR’s shares that HYBE had under the agreement.”

Pointing out that ADOR had 110 billion won in sales last year, he said, “If we conservatively evaluate ADOR, its shares are worth 600 billion won, and if it is 20% (Min Hee-jin’s shareholding), hers is worth over 100 billion won.” Kim Eo-jun expressed his negative opinion, saying, “HYBE seems to have done as much as it could for CEO Min Hee-jin, while she claims she brought in the trainees and made a hit with them by herself.”

“Min Hee-jin is self-conscious that she raised New Jeans. However, the question is whether the background of NewJeans’ success is her own,” Park said. “In the end, NewJeans’ success was also attributed to HYBE’s resources. NewJeans is a group that debuted on YouTube. NewJeans’ music video was released on HYBE’s YouTube, which has 75 million subscribers. This resource is unimaginable for other new groups that start with ‘0’. Their image as BTS’s younger sister group was also popular in the global market. There are criticisms that this is Min’s exaggerated self-consciousness.”

In response, Kim Eo-joon said, “It’s a good thing that the creator has high self-esteem, but the question is how much of HYBE’s capital, infrastructure, reputation, and know-how did she take.”

He then asked back, “Is it like a director who made a big hit with a good idea and received 10 billion won in bonus, but he thinks the idea for the new product is his, so the new product is also his?”

“From a capitalist point of view, ownership and management rights should belong to the company (HYBE),” Park claimed. “(CEO Min Hee-jin) said, “I have the ability to succeed no matter who I do it witg. Many people wanted to give me money. I chose you (HYBE). This is my company. You should thank me for receiving your investment.”

Kim Eo-jun and Park both took a negative stance against Min when Min accused ILLIT of plagiarism. “(Min Hee-jin) herself is a CEO who debuted celebrities, so she received negative public opinion when she pointed her gun to ILLIT,” Park said. “(HYBE) said Min was trying to take over the management control a long time before ILLIT’s debut.” “NewJeans received 16.1 billion won in investment, while ILLIT got 150 billion won, but NewJeans would not think that they are the same family.”

They also talked about the expression ‘slave contract’ that CEO Min used during her press conference. “When you look at how much compensation (Min) has received and remains after adding and subtracting everything, (Min) has a tremendous reward,” he said.

“The biggest blind spot of unlisted stocks is that they cannot be converted into cash. The fact that HYBE has opened up the exit plan (to Min) to some extent is a tremendous merit,” Park said. “Currently, media reports suggest that the company’s valuation is the product of 13 times operating profit.” According to this view, Min is estimated to receive about 100 billion won (about 9.8 million U.S. dollars) by exercising put options on HYBE. Critic Park said, “But HYBE claimed that (CEO Min) asked for 30 times the operating profit, not 13 times,” adding, “If that happens, it will be 300 to 400 billion won.”

Kim Eo-jun said, “The company has not made that much yet, but she was asking them to give up 400 billion won.” “Park Jin-young owns about 400 billion won in JYP. Of the value of the company he has accumulated throughout his life, his stake is 400 billion won. CEO Min said, “She wants them to give her 400 billion won just because she made NewJeans? This is nonsense,” he said.

In summary, he said, “It doesn’t make sense to call this a slave contract. I don’t think she should use that term.”