On 2 October 2026, SK Inc., the holding company at the top of South Korea’s SK Group, disclosed that its chairman and largest shareholder, Chey Tae-won, will sell 1,653,924 of its shares for about ₩944 billion (about $693 million, according to Korea JoongAng Daily). The company said the sale meets his “personal funding needs” linked to a property division lawsuit. The amount matches what the Seoul High Court ordered him to pay his former wife, Roh Soh-yeong, director of the Art Center Nabi, in July.
Why it matters: when the controlling shareholder of a family group faces a large personal bill, control of the group can be at stake. Chey is paying with a slice of his stake, not the stake itself, and the way he sells matters too. Part goes to one buyer in a single block; part goes through a derivative that keeps him exposed to SK’s share price for three years.
What the courts decided
This post covers only the court rulings and the disclosed deal. There have been four rulings so far:
- 6 December 2022. The Seoul Family Court, where Chey had filed for divorce mediation in 2017, awarded Roh ₩66.5 billion in property division.
- 30 May 2024. The Seoul High Court raised it to about ₩1.38 trillion, plus ₩2 billion in compensation. It counted ₩30 billion that Roh’s father, the late former president Roh Tae-woo, allegedly passed to Chey’s father, then SK’s chairman, as part of her contribution.
- 16 October 2025. The Supreme Court upheld the divorce and the ₩2 billion payment but sent the property division back: the ₩30 billion appeared to come from a bribe received during the presidency, so it could not count.
- 24 July 2026. On retrial, the Seoul High Court set the division at ₩944 billion in cash, plus 5% a year in interest. It put Roh’s share at one-third, against 35% before. It valued the assets as of 16 April 2024, but took the later rise in SK’s share price into account when setting the ratio.
Chey appealed again. He will not contest about ₩700 billion and disputes about ₩244 billion. On 12 October, his lawyers filed grounds of appeal challenging the one-third split and the use of the share price rise, Newspim reported. Roh could file a cross-appeal until 13 October; as of 14 October we had not seen a report on whether she did.
Why he needs cash
The July ruling left Chey’s SK shares with him and ordered Roh’s share to be “paid in cash,” Korea JoongAng Daily reported. When most of a family’s wealth is a holding company stake, a cash award tends to become a share sale, a share-backed loan, or both. (We looked at the loan route in our post on Larry Ellison’s share pledges.)
Part one: a block sale to one buyer
Chey is selling 972,493 shares at ₩559,387 each, about ₩544 billion, to a “strategic investor” in a single off-market block. The press reports we read do not name the buyer.
A block sale is one negotiated trade for the whole parcel. Selling on the exchange over days or weeks can push the price down and signal more selling to come. SK Inc. said it avoided a one-off sale in the regular session to limit the impact on the market. The block price was below the ₩587,000 reference price used in the second part of the deal.
Part two: a price return swap
The other 681,431 shares, about ₩400 billion at ₩587,000 each, are sold under a three-year price return swap, or PRS. Korea Investment & Securities has disclosed that it will buy the same number of shares for ₩400 billion, a 0.93% stake, in a deal The Korea Herald describes as a PRS.
In plain words, a PRS works like this:
- The securities firm buys the shares and pays the seller cash now.
- When the firm sells the shares, or the contract ends, the price is compared with an agreed reference price, here ₩587,000.
- If the price is higher, the seller receives the gain. If it is lower, the seller pays the difference.
- The deal carries an agreed fee, and the firm is protected from losses on the money it paid.
So Chey gets the cash today but keeps the profit or loss on those shares for three years, much as if he still held them. The Korea Herald notes that this effectively lets the shares serve as collateral for financing. The firm owns the shares while it holds them; the reports we read do not say how they will be voted, and the fee has not been disclosed.
What changes in ownership
Both trades are scheduled for 2 November, a month after the filing. According to Newspim:
- Chey’s own holding falls from 12,975,472 to 11,321,548 shares, or from 17.76% to 15.49%.
- With related parties, the stake falls from 25.2% to 22.9%.
- Leaving out SK Inc.’s treasury shares and non-voting shares, the voting figures are higher: 20.8% for Chey personally after the sale, and 30.5% with related parties.
He remains the largest shareholder. (For how a holding company concentrates control, see our guide to holding structures.)
A fair caveat
The case is not over: the Supreme Court has still to rule on the disputed ₩244 billion. The block buyer and the swap fee are not public. We relied on press reports of SK’s filing and of the rulings, not on the documents themselves.
Five lessons to take away
- A shareholder’s personal bill can become a group issue. A court award against the chairman led straight to a sale of holding company shares.
- Selling a slice is not losing control. After selling about 2.3% of SK Inc., Chey and related parties still hold just over 30% of the votes.
- How you sell matters as much as how much. A single block to one buyer avoids weeks of pressure on the share price.
- A swap can turn shares into cash without ending the bet. Under the PRS, Chey keeps the gain or loss on 681,431 shares for three years.
- Derivatives move risk, they do not remove it. If SK’s shares end below ₩587,000, Chey pays the difference.
Questions to bring to your advisors
If a large personal claim landed on one of our shareholders, which assets would pay it, and would selling them touch control? Who votes shares held by a bank under a swap or pledge? What would a price fall cost us if we kept that exposure? These are questions to bring to your advisors, not advice.