Doosan Heavy sold Infracore and its HQ tower to clear a ₩3T debt wall

Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction, the group's energy-equipment flagship and a key supplier to nuclear and gas-turbine projects, hit a debt wall in 2020. Korea Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of Korea committed 1.8 trillion won of support in March and April after reviewing a restructuring plan Doosan Group submitted in April, and on June 1, 2020 agreed a further 1.2 trillion won — the third bailout that year, cleared at a ministerial meeting hosted by Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki on May 29.

The price of support was a supervised self-rescue plan. The measures under review included selling core assets — the 35.4% stake in construction-equipment maker Doosan Infracore, construction-equipment arm Doosan Bobcat and property — plus issuing new shares and cutting expenses. The group's Doosan Tower headquarters was put up for sale at 700–800 billion won in talks with Mastern Investment Management, while Doosan Fuel Cell was kept off the block as the unit favored by Chairman Park Jeong-won.

The flagship sale moved fast. On December 10, 2020, Hyundai Heavy Industries Holdings was named preferred bidder for the Infracore stake, believed to have offered around 800 billion won against an initial estimate of 800 billion to 1 trillion won. A contract followed in February 2021 with the HHI-led consortium, including KDB Investment, buying a controlling 34% stake for 850 billion won ($730 million), with payment completed by August 2021.

₩3.0T of state-bank liquidity secured and the Infracore stake sold for ₩850B, restoring solvency and funding a pivot to energy equipment.

State banks preferred a supervised normalization of a nuclear-equipment champion to an insolvency, so liquidity was available — but only against a restructuring plan.

The Infracore stake was the largest liquid asset on the balance sheet, and selling it whole preserved value that a piecemeal liquidation would have destroyed.

Hyundai Heavy could pay because it wanted consolidation: the sale moved Doosan's problem to a buyer whose merged unit took over 50% of the domestic market.

The June 2020 terms made the trade-off explicit — a third 1.2 trillion won bailout in exchange for strict creditor inspection of the company's 'normalization'.

When creditors control your timeline, sell the crown jewels first and on your own plan — Doosan chose a supervised sale of its best asset over waiting for a market rescue that never came.

Hyundai Heavy completed the 850 billion won payment for Infracore in August 2021, after antitrust approvals in Korea, Russia, China, Vietnam and Turkey. The merged Hyundai Genuine unit took over 50% of the domestic construction-equipment market and ranked fifth or sixth globally by share. Doosan Heavy kept the Bobcat stake — held through Infracore but excluded from the deal — and pushed the declared pivot toward renewable energy, gas turbines, energy storage and hydrogen production.