Astra sales rise but profit falls

JAKARTA (JP): Publicly listed automaker PT Astra International announced a 4 percent decline in its consolidated net profit yesterday to Rp 326.89 billion (US$99.05 million) in the first three quarters this year from Rp 340.84 billion in the corresponding period last year.

The company's net sales, however, rose 21 percent to Rp 12.13 trillion in the first three quarters from Rp 9.99 trillion in the same period last year.

The statement said the decline in net profit was caused by the swelling of the company's debt payment costs both for rupiah and foreign currency loans.

The local debts were much more costly because of the rise in interest rates, the company said. It said the sharp depreciation of the rupiah against the U.S. dollar had caused foreign borrowing to be much more expensive because about 30 percent of it was not hedged.

According to the company's statement, the increase in net sales resulted from a rise in its sales volume of cars and motorcycles.

Astra said the amount of cars sold between January and September rose 37 percent to 318,818 vehicles from 233,240 in the same period last year.

The sales of Toyota, Isuzu, Daihatsu, BMW, Peugeot and Nissan commercial vehicles accounted for 157,345 of the total sales volume, up 36 percent from last year's 115,542 vehicles.

The sales of Astra motorcycles rose 43 percent to 1,408,640 in the third quarter this year from 985,481 in the same period last year.

As a result of the better sales performance, operating income rose to Rp 2.33 trillion by September this year from Rp 828.74 billion in the same period last year.

The company's finance director, Rini M Soewandi, said recently that Astra's consolidated net profit would likely be lower than the initial target of Rp 721 billion due to the swelling expenditures.

"The rupiah's depreciation has forced us to revise our net profit target this year," she said, declining to disclose the new target amount. (aly)