[Market Feature] HYBE Rises Over 3% as All NewJeans Members Announce Return

HYBE has shown strong performance for two consecutive days. This comes as all members of the girl group NewJeans, which had been in an exclusive contract dispute with its sub-label ADOR, have expressed their intention to return to the agency.

As of 10:18 a.m. on November 13, HYBE was trading at 300,000 won, up 9,000 won (3.09%) from the previous trading day.

The previous day, NewJeans members Minji, Hanni, and Danielle announced their intention to return to ADOR, following Haerin and Hyein, who had already stated their plans to come back to the agency.

The NewJeans members had demanded the reinstatement of former CEO Min Hee-jin, who was dismissed following conflicts with HYBE. When this request was not accepted, they claimed in November of last year that their contracts were terminated due to ADOR’s breach of exclusivity agreements.

ADOR asserted that the contracts with NewJeans remained valid, and in December of the same year, filed a lawsuit to confirm the validity of the exclusive contracts. ADOR also filed for an injunction to prevent the members from pursuing independent activities until a final verdict was reached. The court sided with ADOR in both the injunction case and the first trial.

Following news of the NewJeans members returning to ADOR, HYBE’s share price surged, closing at 311,100 won in after-hours trading the previous day, up 8.93% from the previous session.

Kim Minyoung, a researcher at Meritz Securities, stated, “If NewJeans resumes activities, full-scale music promotions are expected to be possible from at least the second half of next year.” She added, “ADOR recorded an operating profit of 33.5 billion won in 2023, surpassing the break-even point within just one year. From 2027, the group is expected to contribute at least 20 to 30 billion won in profit annually.”

Kim also said, “Based on the revised earnings estimates for 2026, we are raising the target share price from 370,000 won to 380,000 won.”