This article was published on May 1, 2025, at 7:30 p.m. on the ChosunBiz RM Report site.
The court's appraisal results released on the 1st revealed that the company equity value subject to division in the divorce lawsuit between Kwon Hyuk-bin, founder of the game company Smilegate and Chief Vision Officer (CVO), and his wife, reaches up to 8 trillion won. This is double the scale of the assets subject to division in the divorce lawsuit of Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK Group, and his wife, Noh Soo-young, director of the Art Center Nabi.
Kwon Hyuk-bin, CVO, was filed for divorce by his wife, Mrs. Lee, in November 2022. Mrs. Lee requested half of the equity of Smilegate Holdings, which her husband owns. The Holdings is the parent company of the entire Smilegate corporations.
The lawsuit has been ongoing in the Family Division 3 of the Seoul Family Court. To divide the assets from the divorce, the total value of the assets subject to division must first be determined. Accordingly, the court requested an external appraiser to evaluate the value of the Smilegate Holdings equity.
As a result, the evaluation indicated a maximum value of approximately 8.16 trillion won. Other evaluations showed values of 7.89 trillion won, 7.37 trillion won, 6.14 trillion won, 5.9 trillion won, and 4.9 trillion won.
So far, the highest amount of assets subject to division in the divorce lawsuits of corporate owner couples was 4 trillion won, in the case of Chey Tae-won of SK Group and his wife Noh Soo-young. In fact, in the appeals court of their divorce lawsuit, a ruling was issued ordering Chey to partition 1.38 trillion won in cash to Mrs. Noh. This case is currently under review by the Supreme Court.