[서울신문] ‘Corona vaccine’ distributor SK Bioscience… Choi Chang-won’s leadership in the spotlight

KOSPI’Biggest Fish’ SK Bioscience
President Tae-won Choi accompanies the visit of President Wen
However, the largest shareholder is Vice Chairman Changwon Choi
Vice Chairman Choi establishes a small group within SK Group

SK Bioscience, selected as a domestic distributor of the Corona 19 vaccine, is receiving expectations from investors ahead of its listing on the KOSPI. The protagonist who led SK Bioscience to become the’spearhead’ of Korean vaccines was Choi Chang-won, 57, Vice Chairman of SK Discovery. Vice-Chairman Choi, the cousin of Chairman Choi Tae-won (61), is building a sense of presence by exercising independent management leadership within the framework of SK Group.

According to the business world on the 25th, SK Bioscience is promoting the transfer of COVID-19 vaccine technology with NovaVax in the US. If the contract is concluded within this month, there will be a way to produce vaccines in Korea. This is the result of Vice Chairman Choi visiting the headquarters of NovaVax, Maryland, USA at the beginning of the new year, and having a discussion with the CEO over the transfer of vaccine technology. SK Bioscience is currently commissioning vaccines for AstraZeneca and NovaVax. When the technology transfer is confirmed, it is expected that the vaccination time for Koreans will be faster, as the desired quantity can be produced when desired.

President Moon Jae-in visited the SK Bioscience plant in Andong, Gyeongsangbuk-do on the 20th, and said, “We have secured an additional 20 million vaccines through a purchase contract between SK Bioscience and NovaVax.” At the same time, he said to Chairman Tae-won Choi who accompanied him, “I would like to express my special thanks to Chairman Choi and SK Group.” However, the real leader of SK Bioscience is not Chairman Choi, but Vice Chairman Choi. The holding company SK, whose largest shareholder is Chairman Choi, has no stake relationship with SK Bioscience. SK Bioscience’s parent company is SK Chemicals, which owns a 98.04% stake, and SK Chemicals is dominated by SK Discovery. Vice-Chairman Choi is the largest shareholder with a 40.18% stake in SK Discovery. Chairman Choi owns only 0.11% of SK Discovery. This means that even though Choi is the chairman of the group, he has no control over SK Discovery affiliates. Nevertheless, the reason why Chairman Choi met President Moon at the SK Biosciences production site is because he is the group’s eldest brother.

Vice-Chairman Choi, the third son of the founder Choi Jong-Geon, who founded SK Group, formed an independent small group within the SK Group with SK Discovery as a holding company. The office building is located in Techno Valley, Pangyo, Seongnam, Gyeonggi-do, not SK Seorin Building, Jongno-gu, Seoul. If Chairman Choi focuses on SK Innovation, SK Telecom, and SK Biopharm, then Vice Chairman Choi has built up independent forces around SK Chemicals, SK Bioscience, and SK Gas. Since SK Biopharm is in charge of new drug development and SK Bioscience is in charge of vaccine development, the business between bio-subsidiaries does not overlap.

Due to this complete “one roof, two families” governance structure, the possibility of SK Group’s division into the division has been steadily raised in the business world. However, Vice-Chairman Choi said that it does not even review it under the judgment that it is “no profit.” A business official said, “It is because the relationship between Chairman Choi and Vice Chairman Choi is strong, business does not overlap, and the premium of the’SK’ brand, which is the third largest business group, cannot be abandoned.”

Reporter Lee Young-jun [email protected]