Doosan Bobcat Inc., U.S.-based compact construction equipment maker that was acquired by South Korea’s Doosan Infracore Co., will make early repayment of debt worth $100 million, thanks to a rise in sales led by booming housing market in North America.

Doosan Infracore disclosed on Thursday that its American unit plans to repay $100 million debt on Friday (local time in the U.S.) prior to the debt’s maturity date. In 2014, the construction equipment maker borrowed $1.7 billion. It made early partial repayments of its debt worth $100 million in November in the same year and $120 million in May this year.

The early repayment of the debt will lower the firm’s debt ratio to 90 percent from 94 percent. Following the repayment, the company also expects its net profit for the third quarter to improve on reduced interest expense for the loan. It will repay the debt in cash earned from its business operation.

Doosan Bobcat has seen its earnings improve amid upturn in the North American housing market. It posted 234.8 billion won ($214.9 million) in operating profit on sales of 2.2 trillion won in the first six months of this year, and its sound performance has helped its parent Doosan Infracore return to net profit.

Doosan Bobcat is also scheduled to join the country’s main Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) bourse on October 21 and its debut to the Kospi is expected to bring the company fresh capital of up to 2.45 trillion won.

The company aims to continue to make debt repayments before the maturity date on the steady gain in sales, and solidify its leadership in the global compact construction equipment market by further bolstering business soundness and profitability, said an unnamed Doosan Bobcat official.

By Jung Wook

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