55 state firms unsound

55 state firms unsound

JAKARTA (JP): More than 34 percent of the 166 state-owned companies were classified as financially very unsound and 16.9 percent unsound last year, Finance Minister Mar'ie Muhammad said.

The minister said Wednesday that the proportion of very unsound and unsound state companies last year declined from 35.4 percent and 17.4 percent respectively in 1995.

He said the percentage of very sound companies declined to 42 percent last year from 47 percent in 1955 and fairly sound companies increased from 37 percent to 39 percent.

The finance ministry rates a company's soundness on its liquidity, profitability and solvency.

A company is categorized as very healthy if it has a profitability of more than 12 percent, liquidity of more than 150 percent and solvency of more than 200 percent during the last three years. (bnt)