KUALA LUMPUR: South Korean music label ADOR's chief executive officer Min Hee-Jin has reportedly asked parent company HYBE to terminate the exclusive contracts of popular girl group NewJeans.
The Yoonhap News Agency reported recently that Min asked HYBE to terminate the girls' contracts without the approval of the board of directors.
NewJeans are signed under ADOR, a subsidiary label of HYBE.
HYBE is a K-Pop music label that owns multiple smaller labels, which originated from BigHit Music who are responsible for boyband BTS.
If Min gets to terminate the contracts, HYBE will not be able to prevent the NewJeans members from leaving the subsidiary.
HYBE owns 80 per cent of ADOR's shares which allows them to decide the status of their artistes.
The move comes after revisions of the shareholders' contracts reached a stalemate in February.
Min who is the girl group's creative director wanted to increase her options from 13 to 30 per cent, which would allow her to buy ADOR's shares.
This escalated the ongoing conflict between ADOR and HYBE over NewJeans, which began on April 22 when Min and ADOR executives were accused of taking over HYBE's majority shares.
HYBE called for an audit of ADOR and suspended Min from her duties.
Min denied HYBE's claims and accused them of being unfair to NewJeans.
In a press conference on April 25, Min showed pictures of NewJeans and HYBE's latest girl group ILLIT under subsidiary Belift Lab and drew comparisons accusing them of copying NewJeans' concepts.
NewJeans made a comeback with the music video of their single Bubble Gum on April 26.
The group is set to release another single How Sweet on May 24 and their Japanese debut Supernatural on June 21.
NewJeans consists of Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin and Hyein and has become a popular K-Pop girl group with hit singles such as OMG, Ditto, and Super Shy.