이 기사는 2021년 12월 24일 07:49 thebell 에 표출된 기사입니다.

South Korea’s antitrust enforcer Fair Trade Commission (FTC) has fined SK Group’s holding company SK Inc and the conglomerate’s chairman Chey Tae-won a total of 1.6 billion won ($1.35 million) for alleged unfair gains that Chey made through SK Inc’s takeover of wafer manufacturer LG Siltron in 2017.

The decision, which was announced on Wednesday, comes despite Chey appearing at the FTC’s highest-level meeting on December 15 – which was unusual for a conglomerate head – to explain the legality of his purchase of a stake in the wafer manufacturer.

The antitrust regulator, however, decided not to file a complaint with prosecutors over the case, allowing Chey to avoid a worst-case scenario of a criminal investigation.

SK Inc acquired 70.6% of LG Siltron, now renamed SK Siltron, in 2017 as part of the conglomerate’s push for chip manufacturing, with the remaining 29.4% stake was purchased by Chey.

The FTC saw that SK Inc gave up an opportunity to acquire the remaining stake in the wafer manufacturing company at a discounted price without a reasonable reason and let Chey buy it. This possibly led to undue gains of about 197 billion won to Chey, the watchdog said.

It was also pointed out by the FTC that SK Inc’s decision to let go of that business opportunity was made without a board discussion.

The 1.6 billion won fine is considered not so harsh by many industry watchers. “We were not able to calculate the violation amount because it was systemically impossible to estimate the value of the business opportunity that SK Inc provided to Chey,” the FTC said. That was the reason the regulator had to determine the penalty amount within its regular limit of 2 billion won.

SK Group released a statement shortly after the FTC’s decision. “We regret the FTC decided to take punitive action despite our sincere efforts to explain our stance,” the statement said. “We plan to respond after further evaluating the ruling.”

SK Inc may opt to take legal action against the FTC to show that the ruling was unfair, observers said. The FTC’s ruling has the same effect as a decision from the lowest court.

However, some are skeptical about the likelihood of legal action by SK because the legal battle could take multiple years and also could be bad for its public image.

“SK Group emphasized again in its statement that the transaction was not illegal, but whether it will take legal action is uncertain,” said an industry insider. “Maybe it could be better for SK to pay the fine and just let go of the situation.” (Reporting by Eun-a Jo)