He has continued intensive restructuring that began in 2014 while surging ahead with the listing of Doosan Bobcat, the construction equipment unit, in November.

Market data show that all of the group's affiliates, except for its newly launched duty-free business, have posted profits in 2016 with consolidated sales of 16.41 trillion won ($14.27 billion), operational profit of 917.2 billion won and net profit of 50.4 billion won.

Sales were down 2.9 percent from a year earlier, but operational profit jumped 13-fold for a profit rate of 5.6 percent compared to 0.4 percent in 2015.

Doosan Heavy Industries, a power equipment maker, and Doosan Infracore, the unit that makes construction equipment, both succeeded in red-to-black turnaround in operating income. Doosan Heavy shed 4 percent in sales from the previous year but managed an 818.5 billion won jump in operating profit to come out of the 27 billion won loss the year before.

At Doosan Infracore, an operating profit of 490 billion won put the company back in black after an operating loss of 95.1 billion won a year earlier.

Doosan Bobcat's operating income increased 7.4 percent to reach 414 billion won, helped by expectations of business growth after US President Donald Trump pledged massive infrastructure investments.

Bobcat's listing gave the conglomerate some 300 billion won in cash. Sales of affiliate subunits and KFC gave the group 3 trillion won, arming Doosan with the needed resources to pull up its finances, market watchers say.

"With the bolstered finances and business performances of our affiliates, we are planning another leap with the goal of 19.12 trillion won in sales and 1.24 trillion on in operating profit," a Doosan official said.

Park has been emphasizing on-site management as the new chairman. He has made a series of visits to customer firms in and out of the country while looking for opportunities in overseas infrastructure and new energy markets.

About the only sluggard at the conglomerate, according to market watchers, is the new duty-free business.

The Doota Duty Free Shop in downtown Seoul, which opened in May last year as the country's first late-night shop of its kind, recorded 16 billion won in operational losses in the first half of last year alone. The poor showing is similar to other duty-free stores that opened last year amid market glut. (Yonhap)