Let's set the stage. Chey Tae-won is a Korean billionaire and owner of SK Group, South Korea's second largest conglomerate. SK Group includes the world's second largest memory chip maker, SK Hynix. He married the daughter of Roh Tae-woo, who was head of state from 1988 to 1993, with great fanfare in 1988.
36 years later, the end of their adventure together shakes the business world. It all began with the revelation of an affair with a much younger woman and a son born from the relationship. The inevitable divorce obviously dragged out in court. And the latest measure has been taken by an appeal court, which has ordered the head of SK Group to pay 1.38 billion won (1 billion dollars) in property division to his ex-wife. The deceived wife's lawyers managed to demonstrate that her husband's success was due in part to his wife's support, in particular to his “work at home”, but above all to the impact of the privileged links with the political power that she, As the daughter of a president, she had contributed to her husband over the years.
An issue that could destabilize the Group
In this case, it is important to understand that the majority of Chey Tae-won's fortune is made up of stakes in various subsidiaries of the company founded by his uncle in the early 1950s. The amount claimed is due in cash. This situation could force Chey Tae-won to reduce his stakes in some of the conglomerate's key companies, which are still in the hands of his family. Considering current events and the rise of AI-related chips, SK Hynix, the NAND, DRAM and HBM memory specialist, is a rapidly mobilizing asset.
SK Hynix: an ideal target for “vulture” investors
The Echoes The newspaper reports that earlier this week, members of SK Group's management held a crisis meeting to consider the consequences of the court-ordered division of the couple's assets following their divorce. The need for liquidity could lead to the sale of Group shares. The company's lawyers warned against the risk of ill-intentioned investors or activist funds taking advantage of these sudden sales to gain a stake in the company and control its destiny.
To buy time, Chey Tae-won's lawyers appealed the decision.
Leave feedback about this