SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won is gearing up for the global expansion of the group’s key business sectors in his effort to regain growth momentum since he came back to the helm in August after a three-year absence.

Businesses of the nation’s third largest conglomerate are divided into three areas -- energy and chemicals; information, telecommunications and semiconductor; and marketing and services.

The group continued to grow, posting $156.6 billion in sales last year. But its growth rate has been in doldrums for years due to the slowdown of the company’s energy and chemical business, which took about 55 percent of the total sales.

“The chairman is expected to spur global businesses to find new growth engines for the group and contribute to the development of the national economy (entering the low-growth era),” Lee Man-woo, the head of SK Group’s public relations team, said.

The 54-year-old group leader promised to stay more than half of the year at overseas sites to listen to issues and spot new business opportunities in person -- known as “field management’’ in Korea.

The chairman’s business expansion drive is backed by the group’s stable and simplified governance structure, in contrast to other Korean conglomerates like Lotte struggling with a murky ownership structure.

The third generation of SK’s founding family takes the helm of SK Holdings C&C with a 23.21 percent stake in the group’s holding company.

In late August this year, he took a monthlong field management trip to operations overseas in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Spain.

The first itinerary of the chairman was to visit the group’s energy and petrochemical sites in China. The group chief was briefed on the business status and issues at the Chinese site of SK Hynix -- the group’s semiconductor business arm -- in Wuxi, southern Jiangsu Province, and at the petrochemical joint venture between SK Global Chemical and state-run China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. in Wuhan, Hubei Province -- which produces ethylene and other petrochemical products. SK invested about 3.3 trillion won ($2.9 billion) for the project.

He also visited FSK Holdings, the joint venture between SK Corp. and Taiwan-based Hon Hai Group. FSK Holdings has focused on finding business opportunities in the information technology sector since its establishment last May.

Beyond the site visits, the chairman signed multiple deals for business expansion with global partners during the trip, while strengthening relationship with opinion leaders overseas from different sectors.

Market watchers have been keen on SK chairman’s steps taken since his return to the group in mid-August, raising expectations of mega merger and acquisition deals in the near future.

The group history shows that the chairman has a tendency to push for a deal regardless of paying a premium when he decides to take over a company after lengthy reviews with caution.

The story involving the takeover of Hynix, currently SK hynix, is a good example. Back in 2010, the SK chief personally studied the semiconductor industry with industry experts for the group’s future growth.

Within a year, he decide to make a big bet on the growth potential of the chip industry and took over the world’s second biggest memory chipmaker via its telecom affiliate, paying 3.1 trillion won, higher price than the market value.

The chipmaker took the lead of the group’s growth for the past three years, offsetting the slowdown of the energy and telecom businesses.

The acquisition of Hynix bolstered the high-tech sector as SK’s third key business pillar, together with the telecom business.

“Under Chey’s strong leadership, SK, which is preparing for another quantum jump in growth momentum, is open to mega deals as it did in the past,’’ market analysts said.

SK expanded its businesses into energy in the 1980s and the telecom sector in the 1990s by taking over market-leading companies.

Chey has a B.A. in physics from Korea University and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago. He was a regular participant at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

By Seo Jee-yeon(jyseo@heraldcorp.com)