EXO member Baekhyun has taken another step toward independence, registering his new agency Bion Entertainment with Seoul’s Gangnam District Office on November 9, as his subunit EXO-CBX’s contract dispute with INB100 continues in court.
According to Herald Economy, Baekhyun founded Bion Entertainment in September, and the company completed its registration as a pop culture and arts planning business on November 9. Its registered lines of business cover record production and distribution, performance planning, and management of singers and actors. Star News Korea, citing the Korea Creative Content Agency’s public registry, confirmed the registration and reported that the company was established on September 18 with capital of 100 million won, with Baekhyun as its chief executive. Biz Hankook reported that the company initially registered Baekhyun’s home as its headquarters before changing its address on October 22.
A Bion Entertainment representative has confirmed that Chen, Baekhyun and Xiumin — the EXO-CBX trio — intend to work together through the new company, although no artist contracts have been signed yet. Biz Hankook reported that the company was set up in part to handle revenue from smaller events and tax matters, and that full-scale activities through Bion are expected to begin after March next year. INB100 told the outlet it was not aware of the new company’s establishment.
The move is Baekhyun’s second attempt to run his own agency. After a dispute over his exclusive contract with SM Entertainment, the company he debuted with as an EXO member, Baekhyun founded INB100 in 2023 to manage his solo work, and Chen and Xiumin joined him there.
INB100 was folded into One Hundred Label, led by chairman Cha Ga-won, in May 2024. The relationship soured after settlement and contract payments went unpaid, and the trio notified INB100 in March this year that they were terminating their exclusive contracts. They applied for an injunction to suspend the contracts’ effect in August, and the Seoul Central District Court granted it on September 15, leaving the contracts suspended until a first-instance ruling in the main lawsuit over whether the contracts exist at all. The injunction was granted by the court’s Civil Division 50, presided over by Judge Lee Sang-hoon. The first hearing in that case, initially set for November 4, has been postponed to December.
The dispute has been shadowed by a striking damages claim. In August, YouTuber Lee Jin-ho, a former entertainment reporter, claimed Baekhyun had not received 35 billion won in exclusive-contract money, 16 billion won in jeonse housing deposit money and 12 billion won in unpaid settlements from Cha — a total of 63 billion won. The figure is an allegation made by Lee, not a court finding, and neither Baekhyun’s side nor the company has publicly confirmed the amounts.
Cha, who previously ran a construction company, entered the entertainment business in 2023 when he founded One Hundred with MC Mong, signing Lee Seung-gi, Baekhyun and Lee Mu-jin among others. Herald Economy reported that artists left one after another as settlement payments went unpaid, and that staff wages and payments to partner companies were also delayed. The report also noted allegations that company funds were diverted for overseas gambling trips with MC Mong. Lee Seung-gi, one of the alleged victims, paid a 10.5 billion won deposit to move into a luxury villa owned by Cha on a jeonse lease, and the money had still not been returned when the lease matured this month.
Cha is currently in custody and on trial over an alleged 30 billion won fraud against the company Nomus, according to Herald Economy. The fraud case is separate from the contract dispute, but it frames the backdrop to Baekhyun’s next move: a star building a new home for his group while his former backer faces criminal proceedings.
For now, Bion Entertainment exists on paper and in the registry — a registered company with a chief executive and a stated plan, but no signed artist contracts yet. Whether EXO-CBX’s next chapter runs through it will depend first on the court case, with the first hearing now pushed to December, and then on whether the trio formally signs with the company Baekhyun built.
