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Case file s512 · Divorce and feuds · 2019
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2019
Died
Cho Yang-ho, April 2019
Place
Seoul · South Korea
Field
Korean Air, Hanjin Group
Legal tradition
Korean corporate law · Chinese and East Asian law
Historical event
First chaebol heir to ally with an activist fund against family
Divorce and feudsBrothers and sisters in courtNowEast AsiaSouth Korea
AI illustration: Airliners at Incheon International Airport, 2019
Illustration made with AI for celebrity.estate.

Korean Air's "nut rage" heiress joined an activist fund to oust her brother, and lost the shareholder vote

Cho Yang-ho, chairman of Hanjin Group and Korean Air, died in 2019, and his son Cho Won-tae became chairman. His elder daughter Cho Hyun-ah, known for the 2014 "nut rage" incident in which she forced a Korean Air plane back to the gate over how macadamia nuts were served†, broke with her brother. She formed an alliance with the activist fund KCGI and Bando Construction, with a combined voting stake of about 32 percent in holding company Hanjin KAL. Their mother, Lee Myung-hee, and other affiliates sided with Cho Won-tae. Shortly before the March 2020 shareholder meeting, a Seoul court ruled against the alliance and reduced the shares it could vote. Cho Won-tae kept control. In 2020 the state-run Korea Development Bank took a major stake and backed management. KCGI later sold its stake to Hoban Construction, and Bando sided with Cho by 2022. Korean Air completed its takeover of Asiana Airlines in 2024†.

What the law took from it

An heir who loses inside the family can try outside investors, but courts and state lenders can still back the incumbent.

Sources
  1. The Korea TimesPress
  2. asiae.co.krPress
  3. amp.kedglobal.comPress

Cite as: celebrity.estate, “Korean Air's "nut rage" heiress joined an activist fund to oust her brother, and lost the shareholder vote,” story s512, https://www.celebrity.estate/korean-air-2019, updated 30 October 2026.

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Where this case sits

Divorce and feudsBrothers and sisters in courtNowEast AsiaChinese and East Asian lawSouth Korea