SM Entertainment announced Friday that it will sever ties with its chief producer Lee Soo-man at the end of this year.
SM said its board of directors convened a meeting and decided to terminate a production license contract with Like Planning, a music production company owned by Lee, on Dec. 31, earlier than scheduled.
The singer-turned-music producer founded the K-pop company in 1995 and has been behind the production of SM's leading artists such as Girls' Generation, EXO, Super Junior, NCT and aespa.
SM has outsourced the production to Like Planning and paid tens of billions of won (millions of US dollars) in royalties to the company every year. Lee is the largest shareholder of SM, holding 18.73 percent as of now.
