After the Supreme Court overturned the appellate ruling and sent the divorce case between Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK Group, and Noh So-young, director of Art Center Nabi, back to the Seoul High Court, SK shares plunged.
SK shares were trading at 220,500 won on the KOSPI market at 10:32 a.m. on the 16th. The price fell 4.75% (11,000 won) from the previous day.
SK shares climbed to as high as 235,000 won early in the session that day but turned lower with the Supreme Court's ruling.
The main point of contention at the final appeal was whether to view the SK shares held by the chairman as subject to property division. The first trial ordered the chairman to pay the director 100 million won in consolation money and 66.5 billion won in cash as property division, totaling 66.6 billion won. It found that the chairman's shares in SK Co. were not subject to property division.
By contrast, the appellate court recognized the SK shares as subject to property division and ordered the chairman to pay the director 1.3808 trillion won in property division and 2 billion won in consolation money. The appellate panel determined that 30 billion won, presumed to be slush funds of former President Roh Tae-woo, flowed to the late former chairman Choi Jong-hyun of SK Group, and that this became the seed money for the then Sunkyung (SK) Group.
However, the Supreme Court found that the former president's slush funds "cannot be considered as the director's contribution." Accordingly, it ruled that, unlike the appellate decision, the director's contribution to the process of forming assets including SK shares should be recognized to a lesser extent, and that the amount of property division should be recalculated.