SEOUL: SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won\u2019s latest divorce appeal has reopened two questions: How much further could his 944 billion won ($668 million) property division award fall, and how much of his SK Inc. stake he may need to tap to pay it?<\/p>\n
Chey appealed Friday against the Seoul High Court\u2019s July 24 ruling in his divorce case with Roh Soh-yeong, director of Art Center Nabi, sending the dispute back to the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
On remand, the high court ordered Chey to pay 944 billion won in cash, down 436.8 billion won, or 31.6 per cent, from the 1.38 trillion won awarded in 2024. The reduced award, combined with a steep rise in SK Inc.\u2019s share price, has significantly eased the financial burden relative to the value of Chey\u2019s core holding.<\/p>\n
The 2024 award was equivalent to 67.3 per cent of the value of his SK Inc. stake at the time, according to the Korea CXO Institute. When the remand ruling was issued last month, the revised award represented just 11.5 per cent.<\/p>\n
Chey owns 12,975,472 shares, or about 17.9 per cent, of SK Inc., the holding company at the centre of the group\u2019s ownership structure. The stake was worth about 7.59 trillion won at Friday\u2019s closing price of 585,000 won.<\/p>\n
Each 10,000 won change in SK Inc.\u2019s share price moves the value of Chey\u2019s stake by about 129.8 billion won.<\/p>\n
The market price does not affect the amount ordered by the court, but it could determine how many shares Chey must sell or pledge to raise the necessary cash. A higher share price would allow him to secure the same amount with fewer shares.<\/p>\n
Holdings by affiliated parties also provide some protection, meaning a limited sale of Chey\u2019s personal stake would not necessarily pose an immediate threat to his control of SK Group.<\/p>\n
Chey\u2019s side reportedly proposed paying with a combination of cash and SK Inc. shares following the July ruling, while Roh sought the full amount in cash.<\/p>\n
Dividends could provide another source of funds. Chey received more than 775.5 billion won in dividends from SK Inc. between 2016 and 2025, according to the institute, although it is not publicly known how much remains available.<\/p>\n
Borrowing against his shares is also possible, but his capacity may be constrained. About 5.88 million SK Inc. shares are already pledged against roughly 490 billion won in loans, limiting room for additional borrowing and leaving him exposed to collateral calls if the stock falls.<\/p>\n
Chey\u2019s 29.39 per cent personal stake in silicon wafer maker SK Siltron represents another potential source of liquidity. SK Inc. agreed last month to sell its separate 70.61 per cent holding in SK Siltron to Doosan Corp. for about 2.3 trillion won, while Chey\u2019s stake remains subject to separate negotiations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe situation has changed considerably from 2024, when the award was worth roughly two-thirds of Chey\u2019s SK Inc. holdings,\u201d said Oh Il-sun, head of the Korea CXO Institute.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat matters now is not only how much the property division could be reduced through the appeal, but also the level at which SK Inc.\u2019s corporate value can be maintained.\u201d – Korean Herald\/ann<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEOUL: SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won\u2019s latest divorce appeal has reopened two questions: How much further could his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121843,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[2589,63199,1185,63198,30891,50273,538,241,240,6124,3226,33,172],"class_list":["post-121842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sk","tag-chey-tae-won","tag-collateral-calls","tag-dividends","tag-divorce-appeal","tag-liquidity","tag-property-division","tag-share-price","tag-sk","tag-sk-group","tag-sk-inc","tag-sk-siltron","tag-south-korea","tag-supreme-court"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}