Michael Dell is funding South Korea's most-expensive divorce ever

Michael Dell is putting $406 million into South Korea’s SK Group, buying shares from chairman Chey Tae-wo. According to a Reuters report, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won has agreed the sale of a 1.34% stake in holding company SK Inc to an investment fund linked to Dell Technologies founder Michael Dell for 544 billion won ($406 million). The deal is part of Chey Tae-Won’s plan to raise 944 billion won through share sales to pay a divorce settlement to his former wife.

How Michael Dell is helping SK chairman’s $711 million divorce

Earlier this month, SK Inc said in a filing that Chey Tae-Won had agreed to sell 1.65 million shares, or a 2.26% stake for 944 billion won. Of those, DFO Public Investments, L.P., a Delaware-based investment fund affiliated with DFO Management, the family investment office of Michael Dell, agreed to buy 972,493 SK Inc shares. The sale covers the bigger part of a 944 billion won ($711 million) share sale to fund the payout to Roh Soh-yeong, director of Seoul's Art Center Nabi and the daughter of former South Korean president Roh Tae-woo. The rest of the money will come from a price return swap with Korea Investment & Securities, a Seoul brokerage, covering 681,431 shares, or 0.94% of SK Inc., for about 400 billion won ($301 million). Both transactions are due to settle on November 2.

Dell’s link to SK Group

Dell Technologies, a major supplier of AI servers and data centre infrastructure, has business ties with SK Hynix, SK Group's memory chipmaking unit. It supplies chips for Dell's data center servers. Michael Dell, 61, has a net worth of about $241.3 billion, making him the world's fifth-richest person. His wealth has grown as Dell Technologies' shares have risen and through his large stake in chipmaker Broadcom. He received the Broadcom shares when he sold software company VMware to Broadcom in 2023.