HYBE shares benefited from the company's firing of Min Hee-Jin as CEO of its ADOR imprint, 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 be restructured to separate management from production. Turmoil between HYBE and Min dates back to April, when HYBE reported Min to the police for breach of trust and other allegations. The company said Min “deliberately led the plan to take over management control of the subsidiary” and ordered ADOR's management to pressure HYBE to sell its shares in the subsidiary. The following month, a court blocked HYBE's plan to fire the Minister.
The controversy coincided with a sharp drop in HYBE's share price. HYBE was at 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 ( August 30). But the HYBE-Min dispute isn't the only explanation for HYBE's lackluster 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 percent to 1,832.97, extending a year-over-year gain of 19.5 percent. 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 HKD 97.70 ($12.53), taking its year-to-date gain to 8.9%. SiriusXM improved 2.8% to $3.29. Tencent Music Entertainment gained 2.0% to $10.44.
Spotify was essentially unchanged at $342.88 despite the Evercore ISI raising his 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 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, supplier of Stray Kids and TWICE, fell 1.5 percent to 51,100 won ($38.20). BLACKPINK's agency YG Entertainment lost 3.8% to 34,150 won ($25.53). And SM Entertainment, home of RIZE and Vespa, fell 5.4 percent to 62,800 won ($46.95).
Stocks have been mixed this week as investors await news from the US Federal Reserve that it will cut interest rates in September. In the United States, the Nasdaq fell 0.9 percent to 17,713.62 and the S&P 500 rose 0.2 percent to 5,648.40. In the UK, the FTSE 100 gained 0.6% to 8,376.63 points. South Korea's KOSPI composite was down 1.0% at 2,674.31. China's Shanghai Composite fell 0.4 percent to 2,842.21.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/pro/hybe-shares-rise-ador-ceo-replaced/
