SK Group on Tuesday announced that it has promoted 125 managerial employees, including 69 to new executive posts, as part of its regular reshuffle.

Korea’s third-largest conglomerate by assets appointed new presidents for three affiliates.

The appointees include Moon Jong-hoon at SK Marketing & Company, Kim Se-dae at Sheraton Walkerhill Hotel and Lee Moon-seok at SK Chemical’s green chemical business unit.

The executive shake-up was aimed at accelerating the group’s overseas operations and making inroads into new fields while minimizing any instability due to a graft scandal involving its top brass, officials said.

The promotions come less than a week after the group’s chairman Chey Tae-won was indicted on charges of embezzling company funds to make up investment losses from futures and options trading. His younger brother and vice chairman Chey Jae-won was arrested at the end of last month on the same charges.

Denying any wrongdoing, the older Chey called on executives last week to promptly put their firms on a normal footing.

The group plans to double its investment to a record 19.1 trillion won ($16.5 billion) and hire 7,000 people this year to scale up overseas resources exploration and smoothen its acquisition of Hynix Semiconductor, a local chip manufacturer.

By Shin Hyon-hee (heeshin@heraldcorp.com)