HYBE affiliates behind NewJeans, Le Sserafim hit financial high notes thanks to fandoms

Industry

Published: 19 Mar. 2024, 17:10

HYBE affiliates behind NewJeans, Le Sserafim hit financial high notes thanks to fandoms

Girl group NewJeans attends the 37th Golden Disc Awards held in Bangkok on Jan. 6. [GOLDEN DISC AWARDS ORGANIZING COMMITTEE]

HYBE’s affiliate labels ADOR and Source Music reaped over 170 billion won ($127 million) in revenue last year as they rode on the dedicated global fandoms of fourth-generation girl groups NewJeans and Le Sserafim.

ADOR, the label behind NewJeans, posted revenue of 110.2 billion won in 2023, spiking 491.8 percent on year, according to HYBE's electronic disclosure Monday. Net profit swung to the black to 26.5 billion won.

Revenue for Le Sserafim's agency, Source Music, soared 167.3 percent to 61.1 billion won, logging a net profit of 12.2 billion won.

Both agencies only manage one girl group, meaning that their financial success was achieved solely due to the performance of the groups and their dedicated fandoms.

Girl group Le Sserafim performs at the media showcase for its EP "Easy" on Feb. 19 at Seongbuk District, Northern Seoul. [NEWS1]

NewJeans and Le Sserafim made the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for 2023 in Asia, an annual selection of 30 notable people under the age of 30.

A total of 10 NewJeans songs have been streamed more than 100 million times on Spotify. Three of them — “Hype Boy,” “Ditto” (2022) and “OMG” (2023) — were streamed over 500 million times on the global music platform.

The girl group ranks fourth in HYBE’s top album sales in 2023 with 4.26 million, coming after Seventeen’s 16 million, BTS’s solo albums with 8.7 million and Tomorrow X Together with 6.5 million.

HYBE’s stake in ADOR was slimmed down to 80 percent from the initial 100 percent stake in the first quarter of last year. It was not disclosed who bought the 20 percent stake, but media reports speculate it to be ADOR CEO Min Hee-jin.

Min, a former creative director at SM Entertainment, joined HYBE in 2019 and founded ADOR in November 2021. NewJeans is the first K-pop act to come from the label.

“HYBE has entered into a shareholder agreement to grant put options for 20 percent of the non-controlling stake in its subsidiary ADOR,” HYBE stated in the disclosure. “Additionally, HYBE holds call options to purchase all of the non-controlling 20 percent stake held by the counterparty in the event that specific conditions are met. Furthermore, HYBE holds preemptive purchase rights and joint sales rights for the non-controlling 20 percent stake in accordance with the shareholder agreement, along with drag-along rights.”

Source Music was founded in 2009 and acquired by HYBE for 12.8 billion won in 2019. The label was initially known as the K-pop agency that represented girl group GFriend. The group and the agency terminated their exclusive contract in May 2021. The label then debuted Le Sserafim under promotion as “HYBE’s first-ever girl group.”

Le Sserafim has seven songs with over 100 million streams including “Antifragile,” which has the highest number of streams at over 400 million.

BY LEE JAE-LIM [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]