Astra enjoys 28 percent increase in net profit

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The country's largest automotive assembler and distributor PT Astra International said that it booked a 28 percent increase in net profit in the first nine months of this year from the same period last year on higher sales and lower financing charges.

Astra said in a press statement on Friday that it recorded an increase in net profit to Rp 3.70 trillion (US$440 million) from Rp 2.88 trillion. The company's sales increased by 4.6 percent to Rp 24.2 trillion.

Operating income also increased by 25 percent to Rp 2.59 trillion from Rp 2.07 trillion, as a result of stronger earnings from automotive, financial services and agribusiness.

Astra said that its car sales surged to 112,642 units in the first nine months of this year from 103,744 units in the same period last year, mostly contributed by Toyota, followed by Daihatsu, Isuzu, BMW, Peugeot and Nissan.

However, the company's market share was slightly reduced to 41.9 percent from 43.1 percent, mainly due to the decline in sales of Isuzu diesel-engine vehicles, Astra said.

The company also announced that the sales of its Honda motorcycles grew by 12.6 percent to 1.17 million units.

As of September, Honda is still leading the country's motorcycle market, occupying around 52.6 percent of market share.

Astra also enjoyed higher sales from its automotive spare parts division at Rp 1.44 trillion from Rp 1.38 trillion last year, mostly from sales in the replacement market, original equipment and exports.

Astra runs its spare parts operations through its subsidiary PT Astra Otoparts.

Along with the increase in domestic automotive sales, Astra also reaped higher sales from its financing business managed by PT Astra Credit Companies. Loans for cars increased by 25.8 percent to 41,298 cars while for motorcycle by 13 percent to 351,687 motorcycles.

In the agribusiness sector, Astra, through its unit PT Astra Agro Lestari, booked a 20.4 percent increase in revenue to Rp 1.74 trillion in the first nine months of this year compared to the corresponding period of last year.

Astra said that the surge was mostly due to an increase in the production and price of crude palm oil (CPO). Astra's CPO production jumped by 16.8 percent to 386,388 tons from 330,720 tons, with an average selling price rising by 7.6 percent.

Astra plans to pay a final dividend for 2003 of around 25 percent from its net profit but it will not include profit from extraordinary income. The dividend will include an interim dividend for financial year 2003 of Rp 50 per share.

The pay out is scheduled for December.