Chey Tae-won and Roh Soh-yeong to Face Each Other in Court at 2 p.m. Today... SK Shares, Now Valued at 11 Trillion Won, Emerge as the Key Issue

[Financial News] Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK Group, and Roh Soh-yeong, head of Art Center Nabi, will face each other in court on the 15th for the first time in two years and two months. The recent surge in SK's share price and market capitalization has emerged as the key variable in the retrial mediation.
According to legal and investment banking sources on the 15th, Civil Division 1 (Family Affairs) of the Seoul High Court, presided over by Judge Lee Sang-joo, will hold the second mediation session in the retrial of Chey and Roh's property division case at 2 p.m. that day. After confirming only the gap between the two sides at the first mediation session on the 14th of last month, the court is expected to summon both Chey and Roh together and begin full-scale coordination.
The biggest issue in the mediation is whether SK shares held by the holding company should be subject to division, and when their value should be assessed.
Chey's side maintains that the shares are his separate property inherited from his late father, Choi Jong-hyun, the former chairman. By contrast, the Supreme Court of Korea overturned the appellate ruling while describing the SK shares as marital property.
As a result, even if the court or the mediation process recognizes SK shares as divisible assets, the amount Roh could receive will fluctuate by hundreds of billions of won to more than 1 trillion won depending on whether the valuation date is set at the time the divorce suit was filed in 2018 or at the time the retrial proceedings conclude in 2026.
In particular, as the divorce case dragged on, SK's share price rose sharply, causing the size of the assets at stake to swell to an astronomical level.
As of 11 a.m. that day, SK was trading in the 650,000-won range on the main bourse. Compared with 2018, when the divorce case between Chey and Roh was in its early stages and SK shares were trading at around 160,000 won, the current price has risen by roughly four times.
Unlike a court ruling, mediation could allow both sides to reach an agreement while taking share-price volatility into account. However, with the value of the stake having been maximized by favorable developments tied to SK hynix, a fierce dispute appears unavoidable at this point.
Earlier, the trial court excluded SK shares from the division target and ordered 100 million won in alimony and 66.5 billion won in property division. The appeals court, however, recognized SK shares as joint property and ruled that "Chey Tae-won must pay Roh Soh-yeong 1.3808 trillion won." That decision reflected its finding that 30 billion won in slush funds from former President Roh Tae-woo had flowed into the growth of SK Group and that Roh's contribution to the assets should be recognized.
However, in October last year, the Supreme Court of Korea overturned the lower court ruling, saying, "The slush funds of former President Roh Tae-woo were illegal money, so even if that money flowed into SK, it cannot be considered Roh Soh-yeong's contribution in the property division." The court sent the case back to the Seoul High Court. It did, however, dismiss the appeal regarding the order to pay 2 billion won in alimony, leaving that part of the ruling intact.
sms@fnnews.com Sung Min-seo Reporter