The CEO of ADOR says fans should expect the new subsidiary label of BTS‘ agency HYBE to debut its first K-pop girl group sometime in “the third quarter of the year”.

ADOR’s CEO Min Hee-jin recently spoke to Be(Attitude) in a new interview about her plans for the company’s new group, which she revealed will be making their highly-anticipated debut later this year following the label’s launch in November 2021.

Min first explained that the new girl group had been in the works since 2019. “We held auditions back in September 2019 and by the end of that year, we had completed not only the audition process but the casting as well,” she shared. “The girls have been in training for roughly the last two years, since the beginning of 2020.”

“They will present the direction I’ve had specific plans for a new girl group for a long time,” said Min, who is also currently the Chief Brand Officer at HYBE. She is also in charge of the team’s creative direction and branding. “I expect their launch to take place in the third quarter of the year.”

Speaking on the group’s roster of members, Min said that both the girl group and herself are “set[ting] our own standards and are working our best toward them”. “In that sense, I believe our group’s energy is absolutely outstanding. They are constantly polishing their skills,” she shared.

The launch of ADOR’s debut act marks Min’s first “major” project since joining HYBE’s ranks in 2019, according to a report from Korea JoongAng Daily. Min was notably a visual director with SM Entertainment prior, where she had been in charge of the creative direction of some of K-pop’s biggest acts, such as Girls’ Generation, f(x), Red Velvet, SHINee and EXO.

In other HYBE news, BTS member J-Hope was diagnosed with the coronavirus on March 24, after experiencing symptoms of a sore throat the day before. He is now the sixth member of BTS to have contracted the virus so far, following RM, Jin, Suga, Jimin and V in past months.