SK Group chief ordered to pay S$1.35b in divorce case; shares in SK Inc soar

SEOUL - A South Korean court ruled SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won must pay more than S$1 billion to his estranged wife as part of their planned divorce, sending shares in the group's holding firm surging on speculation that he will have to purchase more stock to cement his control.

Mr Chey was ordered on May 30 to pay 1.38 trillion won (S$1.35 billion) in cash and 2 billion won in alimony to Ms Roh Soh-yeong, the daughter of former South Korean President Roh Tae-woo.

The Seoul High Court found Mr Chey's shares in holding company SK Inc should be counted as part of the couple's joint property, overturning a 2022 ruling by a lower court for a much smaller amount of 66.5 billion won.

It also takes into account the contributions Ms Roh So-young and her father made to Mr Chey’s success. “It was reasonable to rule that, as his wife, Roh played a role in increasing the value of SK Group and Chey’s business activity,” the court said in a verdict obtained by AFP.

Mr Chey married Ms Roh So-young in 1988 but they have been separated for years. She appealed against the original settlement amount awarded in 2022, several years after Mr Chey filed for divorce in what has become an acrimonious case.

The court said the new settlement also took into account the emotional suffering Ms Roh So-young endured due to Mr Chey’s extramarital affair. Mr Chey has a child with his new partner.

The court said Mr Chey “is not showing any signs of remorse for his foul behaviour in the course of the trial... nor respect for monogamy”, ordering him to pay the settlement in cash.

Mr Chey’s net wealth was assessed by the court to be around four trillion won, meaning Ms Roh So-young will take 35 percent of it in the settlement.

His legal team said they would lodge an appeal against the latest ruling, claiming the court had “taken Roh’s one-sided claim as factual”.

The Seoul High Court said Mr Roh Tae-woo also helped Mr Chey’s business flourish during his five years as president from 1988, easing regulatory hurdles for SK’s late former chairman Chey Jong-hyon, Mr Chey Tae-won’s father.

“Former president Roh Tae-woo played the role of a protective shield for ex-chairman Chey Jong-hyon” when the late businessman was trying to tap into the mobile carrier business, the court said, giving “intangible help” to the family.

Mr Chey’s lawyers disagreed, saying SK Group had been under pressure from the Roh government and had “provided various financial contributions”.

“We will set things straight through the appeal,” they said.

Shares in SK Inc jumped 9 per cent after the ruling, giving it a market value of some 2 trillion won.

Mr Chey owns 17.7 per cent of the SK Inc and controls SK Hynix, the world's second-largest memory chip maker, and other SK affiliates through his stake in SK Inc.

Park Ju-gun, head of corporate analysis firm Leaders Index, said that since the court ruling did not stipulate that Mr Chey split his stock holding with Ms Roh, he thought the chances of increased purchases of SK Inc stock were low.

He also said that, assuming the ruling stands, he thought Mr Chey would be unlikely to sell his shares to make the payment but would probably take out loans using his SK Inc stock as collateral.

SK Group is South Korea's second-largest conglomerate in terms of assets after Samsung, according to the country's Fair Trade Commission. REUTERS, AFP