STX Group chairman Kang Duk-soo vowed to focus on profits and stable growth to keep the conglomerate afloat amid a somber outlook for the global economy, company officials said Tuesday.

Kang, who built the nation’s 12th-largest business group in terms of asset value through aggressive mergers and acquisitions of shipbuilding, shipping and heavy industries companies, announced last month that STX will not push for any large M&As after dropping its bid to buy Hynix Semiconductor.

STX affiliates recently suffered steep stock price falls on rumors of financial trouble, prompting the group to issue a press release that it will concentrate on improving its financial structure through selling off overseas assets and an initial public offering of STX Energy.

During a two-day management strategy workshop that ended on Monday, Kang instructed his executives to focus next year’s business plans on winning new orders, making profits and stabilizing the group’s financial structure.

“The economic uncertainties that have swooped upon the world as Europe and the U.S. go through fiscal crises will continue to have a negative impact on companies’ business environment next year,” Kang told some 200 executives in the biannual meeting at an STX resort in Mungyeong, North Gyeongsang Province.

“It is high time for us to preemptively respond to possible crises and emphasize solid management and stable growth.”

Kang championed sales as the foremost task for the conglomerate’s survival and sustainable management.

“The past 10 years have been a time of quantitative growth. In the next 10 years, we will knuckle down to obtain cost competitiveness and raise productivity for robust growth,” he said.

Kang urged the executives to establish action plans to improve the financial structure of each affiliate and create new business opportunities to secure liquidity.

“A real crisis comes when we can’t clearly see what kind of reality we are facing,” he said.

“Let us turn the crisis into an opportunity through crisis management and bettering our fundamentals to proactively tackle the fast-changing business environment.”

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