[talk] Court rules ‘Hive cannot fire Min Hee-jin’

Now, let's stay together without worrying about Min Dae-pyo and New Jeans ㅠㅠㅠ You must have had a hard time ㅠㅠㅠㅠ

Bernie's worked hardㅠㅠ

On the 30th, Min Hee-jin, CEO of Adore, the agency to which girl group 'New Jeans' belongs, won the 'injunction to exercise voting rights' case filed against Hybe, the number one entertainment company in Korea.

Hive owns 80% of Adore, and in the midst of a management dispute with CEO Min, they decided to hold an Adore shareholders’ meeting on the 31st to dismiss CEO Min. Then, CEO Min filed an injunction requesting that “Hive not exercise its voting rights at the shareholders’ meeting,” and on that day, the court ruled in favor of CEO Min.

On this day, the 50th Civil Agreement Division of the Seoul Central District Court (Chief Judge Kim Sang-hoon) made a decision to accept the application for an injunction against the exercise of voting rights filed by Representative Min against Hive.

The court ruled that “Representative Min and Hive entered into a shareholder agreement in March 2023, and this agreement is interpreted as ‘restricting Hive from exercising its voting rights by dismissing Representative Min unless there is a reason for dismissal for Representative Min.’”

He continued, “It is Hive’s responsibility to explain to Representative Min whether there is a reason for Ham’s dismissal,” and “We have determined that Hive did not sufficiently explain the reason for Representative Min’s dismissal (regarding the injunction requested by Representative Min).”

He said, “If Hive is allowed to exercise its voting rights at the general shareholders’ meeting, Representative Min may suffer damages that are difficult to recover through post-facto monetary compensation,” and “The need to prohibit Hive from exercising its voting rights is evident.”

The court also said, “To prevent Hive from violating its obligation to refrain from exercising voting rights, we will determine the amount of compensation for breach of duty to be 20 billion won.”

Meanwhile, the court also presented its judgment on the management dispute between Hive and CEO Min. The court stated, “It is clear that CEO Min sought to weaken Hive’s control over Adore by taking New Jeans out of Hive’s control or pressuring Hive to sell its stake in Adore, thereby allowing CEO Min to control Adore independently.”

However, he explained, “It is difficult to see that they have moved beyond the stage of seeking such a method and progressed to the stage of concrete implementation,” and “Although Representative Min’s actions may be considered an act of betrayal toward Hive, it is difficult to see them as an act of breach of trust toward Adore.”