SK Group hands out treasury shares to group-wide employees

[Photo by Han Joo-hyung]

South Korea’s third-largest conglomerate SK Group is rewarding executives and employees with treasury shares to shore up employees morale and stakeholder value in line with group-wide environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiative.

SK Group’s material development arm SKC Ltd. held a board meeting at the end of September to hand out 45 treasury stocks each to 2,000 executives and employees to mark the 45th anniversary of the company’s foundation. According to its regulatory filing on Friday, SKC granted a total of 102,795 treasury shares worth 16.2 billion won ($13.74 million), which equates to over 7 million won per employee.

It is the first time in five years that SKC has granted treasury stocks to its employees. The stock reward is part of SKC’s efforts to encourage its employees at a time of its business transition to next-generation materials such as cathodes, anodes, and glass substrates for high-performance computing under the group’s so-called “Deep Change” initiative.

Oil refining and battery unit SK Innovation Co. held a board meeting early this month to dole out 462,745 treasury shares to its rank-and-file employees. The stock grants will reportedly be tiered to pay levels.

SK Telecom Co. has also announced it will award 100 treasury shares to all the executives and employees, timed with the scheme to spin off non-telecom ICT operations into separate entity SK Square next month. The stock grant could create synergy between the two entities and bolster shareholder value.

SK hynix in April granted stock options worth 200 percent of the base salary as incentive to appease employee complaints over under pay.

Many companies in the country across various industries including Hyundai Motor, Naver, Kakao, Pearl Abyss and Dongkuk Steel Mill have rewarded employees with treasury shares.

Meanwhile, SK Group has kicked off 2021 CEO seminar, a three-day annual meeting participated by not only the owner family including chairman Chey Tae-won, senior vice chairman Chey Jae-won and SK Discovery vice chairman Chey Chang-won but also SK Supex Council chairman Cho Dae-sik and a number of chief executive officers of its business units to discuss business strategies for next year.

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