Seoul High Court Rules on SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and Ex-wife's Property Division Case
Chey Tae-won's divorce property case ruled by High Court today
The Seoul High Court ruled this afternoon on the retrial of the property division case between SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and his ex-wife, Roh Soo-young.
The core dispute is whether Chey Tae-won's approximately 17.9% stake in SK Inc should be included in the marital property and the valuation timing, as the previous ruling of 13.8 trillion won in 2024 was overturned by the Supreme Court.
The ruling is event-driven, as SK Hynix and SK Inc's stock prices have surged recently due to AI storage demand, with funds cautious about control change risks, benefiting short-term traders while pressuring the group's stable shareholding structure.
Source: Public Information
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Chey Tae-won married Roh Soo-young, daughter of former President Roh Tae-woo, in 1988. After publicly acknowledging an extramarital affair and having a child in 2015, he initiated divorce proceedings. The initial ruling awarded only 665 million won, but the High Court significantly raised it to 13.8 trillion won in 2024, recognizing SK shares as marital property, although the Supreme Court ordered a retrial on the grounds of erroneous illegal fund recognition.
In terms of capital, Chey Tae-won controls SK Inc through inherited shares from his father, thereby indirectly controlling SK Hynix. The AI wave has inflated the market value of his holdings from approximately 20 trillion won in 2024 to over 70 trillion won, and any substantial cash or equity division could force him to reduce or pledge shares, weakening his absolute control over the group.
Similar cases include Samsung's Lee Jae-yong's inheritance tax dispute and Hyundai Motor's Chung family property division, both of which altered the final control structure due to soaring valuations of listed controlling shares. Currently, SK is at the peak of semiconductor expansion, and this ruling will determine a turning point in chaebol governance from family concentration to external dilution.
Essentially, this is about capital concentration, with the mechanism being that Korean divorce law divides based on contribution ratios rather than automatic equal division. The subsequent surge in stock prices makes the valuation timing a key variable in determining whether control slips away.
ABAB News · Law of Cognition
The greater the stock price increase, the harder it is to determine divorce valuation
Control = Inherited shares × Subsequent market conditions
Family disputes ultimately speak through market value