A South Korean gaming billionaire and his wife will get a court verdict on their divorce Wednesday, with control of one of the country’s biggest privately held gaming companies potentially at stake.
Kwon Hyuk-bin’s fortune is estimated at $3 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Kwon, 52, has a controlling interest in Smilegate Inc., the gaming company he founded which is behind blockbuster shooting game Crossfire and role-playing title Lost Ark.
His wife, Lee Hwa-jin, 53, has filed for divorce, with local media reporting that she is seeking half his 100% stake in the company. A court-ordered appraisal valued his assets at as much as 8 trillion won , the reports said, implying a potential division of about 4 trillion won.
The proceedings are closed, and the parties’ filings and the appraisal report aren’t publicly available. A law firm representing Kwon declined to comment. But the verdict could reshape ownership of one of the country’s largest private firms.
Kwon has maintained in court that he does not want to end the marriage, local media have reported, in which case, the court will have to decide whether to grant his wife’s petition to divorce, before it decides on any division of assets.
The dispute turns on a question that has become increasingly consequential for South Korea’s billionaire families: how much of a business empire belongs to the spouse who isn’t its public face. Lee has previously held executive positions at the company, according an official registry document obtained by Bloomberg.
Lee’s side have told local media she helped finance Smilegate at its founding and took part in its early management, holding a 30% stake and serving as chief executive and later a registered director. Legal representatives for Lee did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Smilegate said in a statement earlier this year that all of the initial capital for the company came from Kwon, although Lee held a 30% stake when the company was founded. According to the company, Lee did not work at the office and did not have a desk at the firm.
The judgment will come just months after the Seoul High Court ordered SK Group billionaire Chey Tae-won to pay his former wife 944 billion won — the largest divorce award in Korean history — in a ruling Chey has appealed.
Both cases hinge on how courts value a spouse’s contribution to family wealth. In Chey’s case, Roh Soh-yeong argued that her household, child-rearing and public roles helped build SK, a claim the Seoul High Court partly accepted. Chey argued his SK shares were inherited property and not subject to division in the divorce.
Kwon’s case differs because Smilegate was founded in 2002, after the couple married. The eventual division will still depend heavily on the court’s assessment of Lee’s contribution and the value assigned to Smilegate’s unlisted shares.
The private-company structure adds another complication. Unlike Chey’s publicly traded SK holdings, Kwon’s wealth is tied up in unlisted shares whose value must be appraised rather than observed in the market.
With assistance from Soobin Kim.
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