"Telecom Company and Investment Firm to Split" SKT's Division Board Meeting This Week

[Asia Economy Reporter Seulgina Cho] SK Telecom, which announced its plan to split into a mobile telecommunications business company and an investment company after 37 years since its founding, will hold a board meeting this week to finalize this governance restructuring plan.

By separating telecommunications and new growth areas that SK Telecom has been promoting, it is expected to provide momentum to new businesses such as semiconductors and commerce, which had been relatively overshadowed by telecommunications. The split ratio is likely to be 6 to 4.

According to industry sources on the 7th, SK Telecom will hold a board meeting between the 9th and 10th to officially begin the procedures related to the spin-off. Then, after shareholder meetings in September and October, the company split and re-listing will be completed by November. Accordingly, the surviving company, the business company, will focus on AI and digital infrastructure businesses based on existing telecommunications, while the newly established investment company will actively engage in domestic and overseas investments centered on non-telecommunications sectors such as semiconductors.

The investment company, which will launch with about 100 employees around the end of this year, will be responsible for expanding non-telecommunications new businesses such as semiconductors and mobility. Most of the new business areas of SK Telecom subsidiaries, including One Store, Wavve, SK Hynix, 11st, ADT Caps, and T map Mobility, are expected to fall under the investment company. Some of the executives and employees who were in charge of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and investment attraction in various SK Telecom departments will move to the investment company.

The business company will have SK Broadband and SK Telink under its umbrella and will focus on existing telecommunications and IPTV businesses. SK Telecom CEO Park Jung-ho has presented the ‘Metaverse (3D virtual world)’ based on AI and digital infrastructure as the new keyword for the surviving company. Efforts will also be accelerated in cloud, data centers, and AI-based subscription services.

SK Telecom plans to gain proper corporate value recognition and create a virtuous cycle of profit generation and reinvestment by establishing management structures and investment bases suitable for each field in both telecommunications and new growth areas. The CEOs who will lead each company will be officially announced soon. Industry insiders expect that after the spin-off, CEO Park, who concurrently serves as vice chairman of SK Hynix, will lead the investment company, while Yoo Sang-young, head of the mobile network operator (MNO) business, will lead the business company.

The much-anticipated issue of changing the company name is being reviewed to keep ‘Telecom’ for the surviving company. The split ratio is being discussed as 6 to 4 based on assets, with the surviving company holding 60% and the newly established company 40%.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.