HYBE shares benefitted from the company’s dismissal of Min Hee-Jin as CEO of the imprint ADOR, gaining 4.4% in a rare positive week for a stock that has fallen 21.0% in 2024.
Min will continue to produce music for ADOR artist NewJeans, but the label will restructure in order to separate management from production. Turbulence between HYBE and Min dates back to April when HYBE reported Min to the police for breach of trust and other allegations. The company stated that Min “deliberately led the plan to take over management control of the subsidiary” and ordered ADOR’s management to pressure HYBE into selling its shares in the subsidiary. The following month, a court blocked HYBE’s plan to dismiss Min.
The controversy has coincided with a steep decline in HYBE’s share price. HYBE was 230,500 won ($172.33) on April 19, the trading day before HYBE announced it would investigate Min, and had fallen 20.0% to 184,400 won ($137.86) by Friday (Aug. 30). But the HYBE-Min dispute isn’t the only explanation for HYBE’s sluggish stock performance. HYBE’s three main South Korean competitors—SM Entertainment, YG Entertainment and JYP Entertainment—have lost an average of 38.1% this year.
The 20-company Billboard Global Music index rose 0.2% to 1,832.97, bringing its year-to-date gain to 19.5%. Eleven of the 20 stocks gained this week, while seven lost ground and two were unchanged. Cloud Music, the week’s top music stock, gained 5.2% to 97.70 HKD ($12.53), bringing its year-to-date increase to 8.9%. SiriusXM improved 2.8% to $3.29. Tencent Music Entertainment gained 2.0% to $10.44.
Spotify was effectively unchanged at $342.88 despite Evercore ISI raising its price target on Spotify to $460 from $420. Universal Music Group gained 1.5% to 23.63 euros ($26.14) after Exane BNP Paribas upgraded the stock to “outperform” and a raised its price target to 27.50 euros ($30.42).
While HYBE was among the week’s winners, other K-pop stocks had another off week. JYP Entertainment, purveyor of Stray Kids and TWICE, fell 1.5% to 51,100 won ($38.20). BLACKPINK’s agency YG Entertainment lost 3.8% to 34,150 won ($25.53). And SM Entertainment, home to RIIZE and Vespa, slipped 5.4% to 62,800 won ($46.95).
Stocks were mixed this week as investors await news from the U.S. Federal Reserve that it will cut interest rates in September. In the United States, the Nasdaq fell 0.9% to 17,713.62 and the S&P 500 rose 0.2% to 5,648.40. In the United Kingdom, the FTSE 100 gained 0.6% to 8,376.63. South Korea’s KOSPI composite index dropped 1.0% to 2,674.31. China’s Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.4% to 2,842.21.