Doosan to speed up asset sales

Financially embattled Doosan Group is expected to spur the sales of its core assets, industry sources said Thursday.

At the top of the list is Doosan Infracore, the group’s flagship construction equipment-maker, which is set to soon seal a 1.3 trillion won ($1.08 billion) deal to sell its machine tool business unit to a private equity fund operated by Standard Chartered.

Standard Chartered was named as the preferred bidder for the deal last month.

Doosan Group hopes to slash Doosan Infracore’s debt -- currently at around 5.3 trillion won ($4.3 billion) -- with the sale.

Doosan Group is a major South Korean machinery and power equipment conglomerate that has recently been struggling amid a global construction sector slump.

To cut costs, the group has put its defense unit Doosan DST up for sale at an estimated 600 billion won.

Hanwha Group, LIG Group and other potential investors have shown interest.

Earlier this month, Doosan Group also sold a stake in Korea Aerospace Industries for some 300 billion won. The proceeds will be used to beef up the firm’s financial status.

(Yonhap)