Court backs Koo Kwang-mo in LG succession dispute
LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo has prevailed in a high-stakes inheritance lawsuit, securing control of a key stake underpinning the conglomerate’s ownership structure.
The Seoul Western District Court on Thursday dismissed a suit filed by the widow and two daughters of former Chairman Koo Bon-moo, rejecting their request to invalidate the 2018 inheritance settlement and redistribute assets under Korea’s statutory formula.
The ruling ends the first round of litigation nearly three years after the case was filed in February 2023.
At the center of the dispute was the late chairman’s 11.28 percent stake in LG Corp., the group’s holding company, part of an estate estimated at around 2 trillion won ($1.5 billion). Following his father’s death in 2018, Koo Kwang-mo inherited 8.76 percentage points of that stake, reinforcing his control over South Korea’s fourth-largest conglomerate.
The plaintiffs — widow Kim Young-sik and daughters Koo Yeon-kyung and Koo Yeon-soo — argued that the estate, including LG Corp. shares, should be divided according to statutory inheritance rules, which allocate 1.5 portions to a spouse and one portion to each child. They claimed they had agreed to the original division under the mistaken belief that a legally valid will granted Koo Kwang-mo full ownership of the shares.
The court rejected those claims, ruling that the settlement was lawfully executed and that there was no evidence of fraud or deception.
Judges noted that the plaintiffs had been repeatedly briefed by the group’s financial management team after Koo Bon-moo’s death and had directly participated in negotiations. The agreement was even revised at Kim’s request to allocate part of the shares to the two daughters rather than transferring all management-related assets to Koo Kwang-mo, as initially discussed.
In the 2018 settlement, the three plaintiffs received a combined 2.52 percent stake in LG Corp., along with financial investments, real estate and art assets worth roughly 500 billion won. Kim currently holds 4.2 percent of LG Corp., making her the third-largest shareholder after Koo Kwang-mo (15.95 percent) and LT Group Chairman Koo Bon-sik (4.48 percent).
The court also cited testimony that the late chairman had left a memorandum expressing his intention for Koo Kwang-mo — whom he had adopted as his legal heir under the group’s long-standing eldest-son succession principle — to inherit management assets and succeed him as chairman.
The ruling removes a legal overhang that had clouded LG’s ownership structure, though the plaintiffs retain the right to appeal.
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