Shares in SK Corp, one of South Korea’s largest conglomerates, soared 16 percent on Thursday after it was reported that a court had ordered the company’s chairman to pay $1 billion to his wife in a divorce proceeding.
Choi Tae-won was ordered by a Seoul court to pay 1.38 trillion South Korean won to his estranged wife, Noh So-young.
Previously Local Reports President Roh suggested he was asking for around 2 trillion won in settlement money plus some of Choi’s SK shares. The final settlement amount was lower, which may have been the reason why SK shares rose more than 9% on the Seoul market.
SK did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC.
SK is one of South Korea’s largest technology conglomerates and the holding company for SK Hynix, one of the world’s largest memory chip companies, and mobile network SK Telecom.
The turmoil began in 2015 when Choi admitted to having given birth to a child out of wedlock. She filed for divorce from Roh in 2017.
During the lengthy legal battle, Roh’s lawyers Reportedly Choi’s lawyers have argued that his late father, former South Korean President Roh Tae-woo, provided him with funds in the 1990s that were used to expand SK’s business. Choi’s legal team has argued that no such funding exists.