SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won reiterated his determination to make Hynix Semiconductor the world’s top chipmaker in his belatedly delivered New Year’s message.

The conglomerate canceled its New Year’s meeting for the first time in 59 years as the prosecution indicted Chey early this month for using company money to make up for losses from his futures investment. Chey’s brother Jae-won, vice chairman of SK Group, was held in custody late last month on the same charges.

The chairman nevertheless wrote the New Year’s message, which is usually done a month earlier. He thanked his employees for raking in 130 trillion won in sales, 9 trillion won in operating profit and 8 trillion won in pre-tax profit last year.

Chey called on them to work hard like the Chinese idiom “honing an ax to make a needle,” which means that anything can be achieved with perseverance no matter how difficult it is.

“With a gloomy outlook that the world economy will grow only 3 percent this year, export-driven Korean economy and SK Group can be hit hard,” Chey wrote in a message posted on the company bulletin board Tuesday.

“We cannot rule out the possibility of a worst case scenario that is more distressing than the global financial crisis three years ago.”

Chey laid out three management directions for the New Year ― draw up and execute business strategies for each region to speed up global growth, grow Hynix Semiconductor into the world’s top chipmaker and develop an innovative culture and people.

“(SK Group) will enlarge its capacity by investing in the semiconductor business,” Chey said, calling semiconductors the group’s new axis of growth after energy and telecommunications.

“Succeeding in semiconductors means more than just securing a new growth engine for SK; it is a matter of increasing the country’s wealth and improving the national economy.”

Chey is expected to attend the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, which starts next Wednesday. He has not missed a WEF annual meeting since 1998.

SK Group’s sales jumped 30 percent last year, after breaking the 100 trillion won mark in 2010. Its operating and pre-tax profits surged 55 percent and 60 percent, respectively.

Compared to 2000, the nation’s third largest conglomerate in assets value saw its sales and pre-tax profit triple and quadruple in 11 years, respectively.

By Kim So-hyun (sophie@heraldcorp.com)