South Korean businessman Chey Tae-won, chairman of the SK Group conglomerate, has been ordered to pay 1.38 trillion won ($1 billion) in cash to his former wife as part of their divorce settlement — the largest ever in the country’s history.
On Thursday, the Seoul High Court observed that Mr Chey’s shares in holding company SK Inc should be counted as part of the former couple’s joint property, thereby overturning a 2022 verdict by a lower court for a much smaller amount, Reuters reported.
Roh Soh-Yeong, the daughter of former South Korean President Roh Tae-woo, was entitled to a portion of Mr Chey’s company shares, the court noted.
The former couple were married for around 35 years. The amount awarded to Ms Roh was significantly higher compared to the 66.5billion settlement ruled by the lower court back in 2022, reports said.
The family court earlier rejected Ms Roh’s request that she should be given a portion of Mr Chey’s shares in the company.
This comes nearly a decade after their marriage fell apart following the revelation that Chey fathered a child with his lover. His lawyers said that he would challenge the order, claiming the High Court took “Roh’s one-sided claim as factual”.
Court order
In its judgement, the Seoul High Court noted that “it was reasonable to rule” that Ms Roh, being Mr Chey’s wife, played a “role in increasing the value of SK Group and Mr Chey’s business activity”.
While putting his wealth at around 4 trillion won, it stated that Ms Roh, who has three children with Mr Chey, will receive an estimated 35% of it.
Further, the court mentioned that she had helped ease regulatory hurdles for her ex-husband’s business, adding that her father had “played the role of a protective shield” for the company’s ex-chairman Chey Jong-hyon.
The new divorce settlement between the former couple took into account Ms Roh’s suffering over Chey’s extramarital affair, the court stated, while noting that Mr Chey had not shown “any signs of remorse for his foul behaviour in the course of the trial… nor respect for monogamy”.
9% jump in company share
Soon after the verdict was out, the shares of SK Inc. jumped by 9%, giving the company a market value of around 2 trillion won.
For the unversed, Mr Chey owns 17.7% of SK Inc, besides controlling SK Hynix, which is the second-largest memory chip maker in the world.
