SK Chairman Chey Raises $679 Million by Selling Stake to Fund Divorce Settlement

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won sold part of his stake in the group holding company to raise funds for a property division payment to Roh Soh-yeong, director of Art Center Nabi.

A stock disposal filing posted on November 5 on the Financial Supervisory Service’s electronic disclosure system showed Chey sold a total of 1,653,924 SK shares in after-hours trades. Of those, 972,493 shares were sold at 559,387 won apiece, while the remaining 681,431 shares were sold at 587,000 won each.

After the sale, Chey’s SK holdings fell to 11,321,548 shares from 12,975,472 shares. His personal stake declined to 15.49% from 17.76%. Including related parties, the combined stake fell to 22.93% from 25.21%. He remains the largest shareholder.

The transaction follows a financing plan SK disclosed last month. At the time, SK said it had structured the sale to minimize market impact. The plan called for about $391 million worth of shares to be sold to strategic investors through after-hours block trades, with about $287 million to be raised through a price return swap, or PRS, with securities firms.

Earlier in July, the Seoul High Court’s Family Division 1 included SK shares among the assets subject to division and set Roh’s contribution ratio at one-third. The Seoul High Court later ruled that Chey must pay Roh $679 million in cash.