This is a deviation from Doosan’s decades of focus on heavy industries, but also highlights the dire situation of the company’s cash flow: In the first six months, Doosan Corp. marked a loss of 66.9 billion won ($57.7 million), while Doosan Heavy Industries, Doosan Infracore and Doosan E&C saw 114 billion won, 34.4 billion won and 86.5 billion won losses, respectively.

With the cash-oriented duty-free business added to the portfolio, Doosan may ease the strain, company insiders said. In fact, the price of Doosan Corp. stock skyrocketed after the bid results, reflecting market expectations.

And Park Seo-won, who once branded himself the “black sheep” of the family for pursuing unfamiliar businesses like advertising, stepped up to support his father and Doosan chairman Park Yong-maan in the critical stage of his business, hinting that the man who used to be shy about taking over the business has finally decided to join the succession race. The eldest son of Park Yong-maan had acquired 1.8 percent, or 472,239 shares, of Doosan Corp. last week.

“Park Seo-won is quite ambitious. Since his father’s days, the founding Park family of Doosan has always shared power by rotating the chairmanship. Seo-won has definitely emerged as a dark horse from among the new generation in the family,” said a company insider who declined to be named.

By Bae Ji-sook (baejisook@heraldcorp.com)