Who is Kim Ki-hyun? All you need to know about BANA's CEO as Min Hee-jin reveals alleged past relationship amidst legal dispute with HYBE

On Thursday, December 18, the former ADOR CEO, Min Hee-jin, attended the latest hearing by the Seoul Central District Court, Civil Division 31, led by Judge Nam In-soo, regarding her ongoing legal dispute with HYBE Labels. The two are currently in conflict due to certain clashes regarding the shareholders' agreement contract between the two.

During the latest hearing, HYBE's side put forth a previously raised speculation, where NewJeans were rumored to have signed with another agency called BANA (Beasts and Natives Alike), back in February 2025. HYBE pressed regarding the same, and questioned whether the former ADOR CEO held intentions of avoiding or violating the non-compete restrictions to sign with BANA. They also highlighted the same since it occurred during the period when NewJeans was in dispute with ADOR and refused to participate in activities under the agency.

To this, Min Hee-jin firmly responded negatively, expressing that there were no such talks between the two parties coming into partnership. Additionally, she also explained that the KakaoTalk messages presented by HYBE were from 2021, before ADOR was even established. She also confirmed that the conversation was in no way related to the current lawsuit regarding their shareholders' agreement. Here's what she stated during the court hearing:

“Those messages are from April 2021. They have nothing to do with the shareholder agreement and were sent before ADOR was even established. There is no connection at all.”

She also revealed that the conversations between her and BANA's CEO, Kim Ki-hyun, were due to their relationship as ex-partners. Min Hee-jin explained that Kim Ki-hyun produced most of NewJeans songs, but there were no personal relationships between the two when NewJeans' project took place. She also stated that the two had broken up a long time ago, and they kept their relationship strictly professional. Here's what she added:

"Kim Ki-hyun is a very capable person who produced all of NewJeans’ songs. / No. We broke up a long time ago — before the NewJeans project even began.”

---

Former ADOR CEO Min Hee-jin explains relationship with BANA, CEO Kim Ki-hyun, and NewJeans

According to the former ADOR CEO, Min Hee-jin's statements during the latest court hearing expressed that her relationship with BANA was largely to promote NewJeans. She explained that she signed contracts with BANA as ADOR, where the agency had to pay service fees and large incentives to the company, even if no work was performed from BANA's side.

Therefore, she paid her ex-boyfriend, BANA's CEO Kim Ki-hyun, around 5% of NewJeans' past album sales, which eventually boosted his annual payout from 400 million to 1 billion KRW, which is higher than the settlements for the NewJeans members. Min Hee-jin also reportedly acquired the trademark for ADOR from Kim Ki-hyun by paying BANA around 100 million KRW after ADOR was established.

His payments of 30 million KRW per month continued even after NewJeans departed from ADOR. While HYBE criticized and pointed out the illegality behind the same, Min Hee-jin explained the exact relationship shared between the two parties. Here's what she said:

"BANA didn’t want to do idol work. But I needed their music, and NewJeans became incredibly successful. Our employees were all properly compensated, not just Kim Ki-hyun. BANA is an external contractor, and Kim Ki-hyun isn’t a composer, so he can’t receive copyright royalties. That puts him in a blind spot. I therefore proposed what I believed was a reasonable level of compensation for the amount of work he was doing.

---

On the other hand, netizens have been looking forward to the final verdict regarding the ongoing legal dispute between HYBE and the former ADOR CEO.

Edited by Aishwarya Sai