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South Korean court orders SK Group chairman to pay $644 million in divorce
The Seoul High Court award totals 944 billion won, a smaller figure than an earlier 1.38 trillion won decision that had fueled scrutiny over Chey Tae-won’s stake in the group’s holding company.
A South Korean court has ordered SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won to pay his former wife Roh Soh-yeong 944 billion won, equivalent to US$644 million, in a divorce-related property division case, according to SCMP Economy.
The ruling, issued by the Seoul High Court, is set below a previous award of 1.38 trillion won that had drawn scrutiny tied to Chey’s stake in SK Group’s holding structure, and if finalized it would be the country’s most expensive divorce ever.
Chey, who is valued at about US$5.6 billion, married Roh in 1988 and they have three children, but public details began to surface in 2015 after Chey disclosed he had a child with another woman; his lawyer said they would review whether to appeal after seeing the full judgement.
The financial stakes of the case also intersect with recent performance across the SK empire, as SK Hynix has benefited from demand for high-bandwidth memory chips used in artificial intelligence, and SCMP Economy notes SK Hynix raised US$26.5 billion in a US listing this month, with the company’s market value topping US$1 trillion.