Astra Q1 earning slides 24%

Astra Q1 earning slides 24%

JAKARTA: Indonesia's car maker PT Astra International said on Wednesday its net profit for the first quarter of this year slid 24 percent to Rp 842.31 billion (US$96.8 million) from Rp 1.114 trillion during the same period last year.

The company attributed the fall to lower foreign exchange gains which slumped to Rp 27.68 billion from Rp 540.60 billion last year.

Like many Indonesian companies, Astra's bottom-line is affected by the rupiah's fluctuations against the dollar due to its offshore borrowing.

The rupiah appreciated 10 percent between late March, 2002 and March 31 this year.

Sales rose 5.8 percent to Rp 7.671 trillion from Rp 7.249 trillion last year.

Astra, which has a joint venture with Toyota Motor Corp. (TM) to assemble and distribute the Japanese company's vehicles in Indonesia, sold 34,563 cars in the first three months of this year. That was around 42 percent of total national car sales.

Astra didn't offer comments on its performance. Singapore's Cycle & Carriage Ltd. is Astra's major shareholder with a 34.3 percent stake. Dow Jones