Bakrie, Astra expect slight impact from rupiah fall
JAKARTA (JP): Bimantara Citra, Astra International, Barito Pacific and Bakrie Group expect no major impact from the sharp fall in rupiah against the U.S. dollar.
Bimantara's finance director Abdul Kadir Assegaf said the fall in rupiah would only have a slight impact given the small amount of the company's foreign loans.
"Our debt in U.S. dollars is very small," Abdul Kadir said at an investors forum held in conjunction with a two-day capital market conference here yesterday.
He said Bimantara's new subsidiary, PT Usaha Gedung Bimantara, which manages and operates the company's headquarters in Kebon Sirih, Central Jakarta, secured a US$80 million loan last month.
The $80 million loan, he said, is the only foreign loan owed by the business group.
He said Usaha Gedung Bimantara could suffer a loss of Rp 26 billion (US$9.45 million) this year because it needed more rupiah in paying the loan.
He said if the loss was consolidated, Bimantara Citra would suffer a loss of between Rp 11 billion and Rp 13 billion.
"But the loss is based on the assumption that the rupiah exchange rate against the U.S. dollar is set at Rp 2,900," he said.
Kadir Assegaf declined to mention the company's financial target this year but said that Bimantara Citra recorded a total revenue of Rp 73 billion in the first semester this year. "This was an increase of 13 percent compared to the same period last year," he said.
The Indonesian rupiah has been under speculative pressure recently following the devaluation of the Thai baht and Philippine peso early last month.
Rupiah has lost about 20 percent this year from Rp 2,398 early January to Rp 2,880 yesterday. This month alone, the currency lost about 9 percent.
Astra
Finance director of the country's largest automaker company PT Astra International, Rini M Soewandi, said Thursday that Astra International was not greatly affected by the rupiah's depreciation.
"The rupiah depreciation has a tiny impact on Astra because the company has swapped its U.S. dollar, Japanese Yen and Deutsch Mark," she told reporters Thursday.
Despite the weakening rupiah, Rini said Astra International was still optimistic to reach its Rp 601 billion net profit target this year.
Besides swapping the company's debt, Rini said, Astra International would also boost the sales of its new-model Kijang and four-wheel drive vehicles this year.
Barito
Meanwhile, PT Barito Pacific Timber said the fall in rupiah would be a windfall profit for the company.
Managing director of Makindo Securities, Gunawan Yusuf, told an investors forum Thursday that Barito Pacific, which exports most of its wood products, could receive an additional revenue of about Rp 75 billion in the first semester this year due to the drop in the rupiah against the U.S. dollar.
"Barito Pacific will be among the companies that benefit from the rupiah depreciation," he said.
Barito's executive said most of the company's products were exported to Japan, Korea, China, Hong Kong, the United States, Taiwan, the Middle East and Europe.
"Although 40 percent of the products are exported to Japan, the sales are paid in U.S. dollars," Barito's executive, Susana said.
Bakrie Group's Bakrie & Brothers said the company did not have any problems with the rupiah depreciation as most of the company's debt, namely its long-term debts, would mature in three to five years.
"Bakrie & Brothers has assumed a depreciation of between 5 percent and 6 percent in our initial calculation," the company's president Tanri Abeng told an investors forum Thursday.
"Given the rupiah's depreciation is higher than our project, we estimate it will decline again to between 5 percent and 6 percent," he said. (aly)