SK Chairman Chey Tae-won meets with reporters at the SK headquarters while heading to his office to resume his usual business after he was released from a prison. (Photos:SK Group)

SK Group’s Chey Tae-won returned to his usual business shortly after he was released from prison in the Liberation Day special pardon on Aug. 14.

Chairman Chey went to his office at the SK headquarters in Seolin-dong, downtown Seoul, upon his release from the Uijeongbu Prison in the early morning of Aug. 14. Chey met with his family members there at 1:30 a.m. before getting a briefing on the pending issues from Chairman Kim Chang-keun of the SK SUPEX Council, which served in a decision-making capacity to fill out the management vacuum caused by Chairman Chey’s absence. 

Chairman Chey reported to work despite the three-day Liberation Day holiday to grasp the pending issues the group will have to grapple with. The business group suffered from the management vacuum for nearly three years. Chairman Chey was originally scheduled to undergo a health checkup shortly after his release from prison, but he changed his priority to get a briefing on SK units and ponder how to work out investment plans and future vision to contribute the development of the national economy. Many conglomerate chairmen, including Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seung-youn, were expected to be given the special pardon, but Chey was the sole tycoon in the list marking the 70th anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule. 

Meeting with reporters at the SK headquarters while heading to his office, Chairman Chey said, “I’m here to figure out the current situation, and I’ve a backlog of work in the office.” Chairman Chey reportedly discussed ways of boosting the national economy by expanding investments and creating jobs, during a series meeting with CEOs of SK units over the weekend. 

Chairman Chey ordered the front-loading of investments in such mainstay businesses as semiconductors, energy and telecommunications during the series meetings. 

Large-scale investments have been virtually put on the hold for the past two years and seven months when CHey was in jail. The business group is expected to launch large-scale investments to secure growth momentum in the second half of this year. 

Presiding over the first extended meeting of CEOs on Aug. 17, Chairman Chey unveiled a plan to pour 46 trillion won into the construction of SK Hynix’s semiconductor plant, now under way, and two additional plants by 2020. Chey told the participants to advance front-loading investments and establish investment plans in a more aggressive manner. Besides its investment into the semiconductor business, Chairman Chey ordered them to work out plans to expand investments in energy, chemical and telecommunications businesses. 

If SK Group subsidiaries make successful investments, then investments in businesses other than the semiconductor field are expected to add up to tens of trillion won. Among the priority investment targets are SK Group’s investment into shale gas and other overseas resources development projects, expanding of communication networks, and facility investments into the Ulsan Chemical Industrial Complex.  

SK Group’s annual investments amounted to 7 trillion won to 9 trillion won during the period between 2010 and 2011. The figure surged to 14.1 trillion won in 2012, 12.1 trillion won in 2013 and 15.3 trillion won in 2014, as the group invested big time in semiconductor plants after it acquired SK Hynix in late 2011. 

SK Hynix is now building the M14 plant, the latest semiconductor production line, at a cost of 2.38 trillion won. The company invests some 5 trillion won annually in repairing and maintaining the existing semiconductor lines. SK Hynix is the world’s No. 2 memory maker, but the company has yet to fare well in the non-memory sector, including system semiconductor and application processors as sufficient investments are not made.