* IPO set for Seoul this year, no details on pricing

* 2015 stake sale valued company at more than $2 bln -analysts

* Parent Doosan Infracore plans to cut debt

* Doosan Bobcat pft up 20 pct, helped by N. America housing (Adds estimated valuation, earnings details)

SEOUL, Feb 23 (Reuters) - South Korea's Doosan Bobcat Inc, the firm that controls U.S. construction machinery maker Bobcat, plans to sell shares in a Seoul initial public offering this year that could value Doosan Bobcat as a whole at more than $2 billion.

The plan to list shares in the arm of Doosan Group, one of South Korea's biggest conglomerates, comes as Doosan Bobcat seeks to tap into growth in the North American housing market. Proceeds from the sale of shares, owned by an already listed Doosan affiliate, will go toward cutting the latter's debt.

Analysts said Doosan Bobcat could have an estimated value of about 2.7 trillion won ($2.19 billion), according to the terms of a private issue of shares last year that raised about 700 billion won in a early step towards the IPO. Top shareholder Doosan Infracore Co Ltd has a 75.5 percent stake in Doosan Bobcat.

Doosan Infracore didn't say on Tuesday how much it might aim to raise in the IPO, nor exactly when it might take place.

In a statement announcing the IPO plan, Doosan Infracore said Doosan Bobcat chose South Korea as listing venue due to expectations about lower listing costs, ease of attracting investment and because Doosan Bobcat is based in Korea. It said favourable conditions in the North American housing construction market accelerated the listing plan.

Shares in Doosan Infracore rose as much as 9.4 percent before paring gains to rise 5.1 percent as of 0309 GMT, compared to a 0.2 percent fall in the wider market.

Doosan Infracore said Doosan Bobcat's 2015 operating profit grew 20 percent to 385.6 billion won from a year earlier, on revenue of 4.04 trillion won.

Acquired by Doosan Group in 2007 for $4.9 billion, Bobcat's focus on smaller machinery used to build houses sets it apart from firms like the world's largest construction equipment maker Caterpillar, as well as parent Doosan Infracore, that were hit by slower growth in big markets for industrial construction projects like China.

In another fund-raising move announced earlier this month, Doosan Infracore said it was in talks to sell its machine tools business to private equity firm MBK Partners.

($1 = 1,230.4000 won)

(Reporting by Se Young Lee and Joyce Lee; Editing by Stephen Coates and Kenneth Maxwell)