Hyosung Group is ending the year with an official generational shift, as Cho Hyun-joon, the eldest son of Chairman Cho Suck-rai, takes the helm.

The group announced late Thursday that Cho Hyun-joon, president of Hyosung Group, will take the chairman‘s post, while his father will step down, citing his age and health.

The handover of power from Hyosung’s second generation to the third coincided with the 50th anniversary of the group’s foundation.

Cho Hyun-sang, current vice president and third son, was promoted to president.

Chairman Cho will maintain his title as CEO of the company.

Under Cho Hyun-joon, the group saw two consecutive years of high performance.

Hyosung made 12.46 trillion won ($10.33 billion) in sales and 950.2 billion won in operating profit last year.

The fiber business he has led since 2007 grew to become the core business division, accounting for 40 percent of group’s profit.

Hyosung’s spandex takes about 32 percent of the global market, making Hyosung the world’s largest spandex maker.

In recent years, the elder Cho had formed a task force to target China’s spandex market, saying, “The Chinese market is a must to become No. 1.”

After China, Cho moved his target to Vietnam and established production facilities there, which led to the best performances in 2015 and 2016, according to the group.

Cho also successfully transformed the money-losing heavy industries division starting in 2014 to focus on new businesses, such as Static Synchronous Compensators, electricity storage systems and high-voltage direct current, eventually bringing the division into the black. The heavy industries unit swung back into a surplus of 152.2 billion won in 2015.

“We are witnessing significant growth of Korean businesses in the global market,” Cho said upon his promotion.

“With fair play based on sportsmanship, I will raise Hyosung to become the true global conglomerate.”

By Song Su-hyun (song@heraldcorp.com)