SK Holdings was fined around 2.9 billion won ($2.7 million) for violating the law that separates financial companies from nonfinancial ones, the Fair Trade Commission said on Thursday.

Under the current law, a holding firm cannot hold shares of financial companies, such as insurance or securities firms, in order to separate industrial and financial capitals. 



In August of 2015 when SK Holdings had acquired SK C&C, it had also incorporated SK Securities partially owned by SK C&C. But, SK Holdings did not sell off the 9.88 percent shares of SK Securities although it was given a legal grace period of two years to do so.

The FTC ordered SK Holdings Thursday to sell off the shares within a year. If not, it can report to the prosecutors’ office for disobeying orders and can impose additional penalties, the antitrust watchdog said.

“We will abide by the FTC’s order and complete the sales of SK Securities within a year,” said SK Holdings.

In August last year -- right after the grace period was over -- SK Holdings had signed a deal with Cape consortium comprised of Cape Investment & Securities and Cape Investment to sell off its shares of SK Securities. But, the financial authorities have not approved the deal yet because the Cape consortium has not passed the screening of the qualification of the largest shareholder.

By Shin Ji-hye  (shinjh@heraldcorp.com)