South Korean plant builder Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Co. said Tuesday it has decided to sell its boiler-making overseas subsidiary, in an apparent bid to improve its financial health.

In its latest business report, Doosan Heavy Industries said it has finalized a plan to dispose of Doosan Babcock based in Britain during the current fiscal year.

Doosan Babcock ranks as one of the world's four companies with original technologies for making boilers for power plants and has provided products for 30 countries worldwide.

Despite the planned sale, Doosan Heavy Industries said it will own Doosan Babcock's technologies under a licensing deal signed with the British unit in 2018.

In 2006, Doosan Heavy Industries acquired a 100 percent stake in Mitsui Babcock Energy Ltd. from Japan's Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co. for about $169 million in an effort to sharpen its competitive edge in the global power generation market. The company was renamed Doosan Babcock.

Since 2020, Doosan Heavy Industries tried to sell Doosan Babcock in a bid to tide over its liquidity crisis, but its efforts ended in vain.

Doosan Heavy Industries, which graduated from creditor management in February this year, is slated to change its name to Doosan Enerbility at an annual shareholders' meeting next Tuesday. (Yonhap)