SK Group has begun consultations with the government on improving duplicate listing regulations, with an eye on the launch of a US AI company and Solidigm's future initial public offering (IPO). The gist is a request to establish a conditional permission framework, premised on protecting parent company shareholders, so that growth businesses and capital can be concentrated in the AI company jointly funded by major affiliates including SK Hynix, after which an overseas IPO could be pursued.
Since taking office, the current administration has made resolving the undervaluation of the Korean stock market and protecting ordinary shareholders core planks of its capital market policy. Since last year it has amended the Commercial Act to extend the scope of directors' duty of loyalty from the company to shareholders, while continuing to strengthen duplicate listing regulation and improve related systems.
SK believes that not only SK Hynix's cash but also customer relationships, business opportunities, technology, personnel and intangible assets could be transferred to the AI company. In that case, controversy could arise that the increase in the corporate value of subsidiaries such as the AI company or Solidigm would not sufficiently accrue to SK Hynix's ordinary shareholders.
In fact, the investment industry is already abuzz with talk over the possibility that Solidigm will pursue a Nasdaq listing.
The newly established Solidigm is a grandchild company of SK Hynix, but from the standpoint of SK Inc., which sits at the top of the group's governance structure, it is a great-great-grandchild company. If Solidigm, a great-great-grandchild company, lists on Nasdaq on top of holding company SK Inc., subsidiary SK Square and grandchild company SK Hynix, an unprecedented four-tier duplicate listing structure would be created. With an unlisted AI company in the middle, listed companies would overlap across four levels, a structure for which it is hard to find a precedent not only among domestic conglomerates but also in global capital markets.
One investment industry official pointed out, "SK Inc. is already suffering from not fully enjoying the fruits of growth at its grandchild company SK Hynix because of the intermediate holding company SK Square," adding, "the group is already facing conflict-of-interest problems such as tunnelling across the board, and if a four-tier duplicate listing structure is created via the AI company, problems will erupt simultaneously above, below and on all sides of the governance structure."
The materials also contained concerns that undervaluation of SK Hynix's main shares due to overseas duplicate listing could spread into an undervaluation of the Korean capital market as a whole. The logic is that if the discount applied to SK Hynix rises, the share price of its peer Samsung Electronics could also be affected, and given the weight the two companies carry in the domestic market, the KOSPI and the returns of pension funds tracking it, which hold the nation's retirement assets, could be hit in a chain reaction.
Accordingly, rather than uniformly blocking investment in or the listing of AI-related subsidiaries, SK Group proposed a 'safe harbor' style system improvement under which regulation would not apply if certain requirements are met. It asked for a framework permitting overseas duplicate listing if the company can prove that parent company shareholders will not be harmed, since an overseas IPO is unavoidable in order to seize large-scale AI investment opportunities first.
Specifically, it proposed ▲verifying the fairness of transaction prices and conditions through outside experts when transferring assets or business opportunities to a subsidiary, and ▲examining whether each company receives an appropriate return in proportion to what it invested. It also included ▲seeking the consent of the parent company's ordinary shareholders when spinning off a large business, and ▲a mechanism to share the fruits with parent company shareholders when a subsidiary lists and is recognized with a high corporate value.
▶ Original source: https://www.investchosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2026/08/10/2026081080189.html
