South Korea court rules SK chairman must pay 1.38 trln won in divorce case, Yonhap reports (updated)

SK

30/05/2024 07:29

(Adds background court order par 3-4, share price rise par 8)
       SEOUL, May 30 (Reuters) - A South Korean court ruled on
Thursday that SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won must pay 1.38
trillion won ($1.00 billion) in property division in a divorce
case against his estranged wife, Yonhap news reported. 
    The court could not immediately be reached for confirmation.
    In 2022, the Seoul Family Court ordered Chey to transfer
66.5 billion won ($48.63 million) in cash in a division of
property as part of the divorce ruling. 
    The court also ruled at the time that Chey's estranged wife,
Roh Soh-yeong, would receive a one time alimony payment of 100
million won.
    At that time, the court denied Roh's request for about half
of Chey's SK Inc  034730.KS  holdings whose affiliates include
the world's No.2 maker of memory chips SK Hynix  000660.KS .
    Chey holds a stake of 17.5% in the equity of SK Inc,
regulatory filings show, with a value of about 1.9 trillion won
at Wednesday's closing price. 
        SK Group is South Korea's second-largest conglomerate in
terms of assets after Samsung, according to the country's Fair
Trade Commission.
        Shares in SK Inc rose 6% as of 0617 GMT versus the wider
market  .KS11  down 1.4%.
  
    Investors bought SK Inc shares in hopes of any of the
involved parties buying further shares to consolidate control of
the holding company after the ruling, analysts said.
    Both Chey and Roh appealed the family court ruling. Roh was
reported to have doubled her demand for alimony and division of
Chey's wealth to over 2 trillion won, according to local media,
citing legal sources.  
    
    ($1 = 1,378.5900 won)

 (Reporting by Jack Kim; Editing by Tom Hogue)
 ((jack.kim@thomsonreuters.com; +822 6936 1455;))