BCA reports lower net profit

BCA reports lower net profit

JAKARTA: Bank Central Asia (BCA), one of Indonesia's leading
banks, said Tuesday its audited consolidated net profit fell 19
percent on year to Rp 2.54 trillion in 2002, dragged by a higher
deferred income tax.

Deferred income tax soared to Rp 850.1 billion in 2002 from
Rp 35.1 billion in 2001, but BCA didn't give a reason for the
increase.

On operating level, BCA's performance improved in 2002. Its
net interest income rose to Rp 5.46 trillion from Rp 5.12
trillion a year earlier, which drove operating profit 7.7 percent
higher on year to Rp 3.36 trillion.

The bank's capital adequacy ratio, which is the comparison
between equity capital and loans, stood at 32.19 percent on Dec.
31, versus 32.64 percent a year earlier.

Its non-performing loans were 3.47 percent of total loans as
the end of last year, a slight increase from 3.15 percent a year
before.

Farindo Investment (Mauritius) Ltd. holds a 52.4 percent stake
in BCA, while the Indonesian government owns 8.56 percent. Its
founder, the Salim Group, has 5.07 percent, and public investors
own the rest. -- Dow Jones

;DJ;
ANPAf..r..
CorporateBrief-AstraAgro-nonCPO
Astra Agro to sell non-CPO units
JP/14/brief

Astra Agro to sell non-CPO units

JAKARTA: Indonesian crude palm oil producer PT Astra Agro
Lestari said Tuesday it expects to finish the sale of its non-
crude palm oil units by the end of the third quarter of this
year.

"We want to finish the sale of the cocoa, tea and rubber units
by the third quarter of this year," Astra Agro's vice president
director, Benny Tjoeng, told Dow Jones Newswires.

Astra Agro has 12 such units in Java, Sumatra and Kalimantan
islands.

Tjoeng said the total size of the plantations for sale is
around 24,000 hectares. The plan to sell its units is aimed at
focusing on its core business, the crude palm oil industry, he
added.

He declined to reveal how much money Astra Agro will raise
from the sales.

The daily Tempo newspaper Tuesday quoted Astra Agro director
Juliani Eliza Syaftari as saying the company would likely raise
up to US$35 million from the sales.

Astra Agro is 63.9 percent owned by Indonesian auto group PT
Astra International.

Late last year, the car manufacturer said it had signed an
$850 million debt-restructuring deal with its creditors, which
included the sale of assets such as its stake in the plantations
group. However, the parent company later said it doesn't plan to
sell its shareholding in Astra Agro, which it considers to be a
valuable asset. -- Dow Jones

;DJ;
ANPAf..r..
CorporateBrief-Wahaha-global
Wahaha to become global player
JP/14/brief

Wahaha to become global player

BEIJING: Hangzhou Wahaha Group Co., China's largest beverage
company, wants to become a consumer goods company of global scale
by expanding its brand into new areas such as children's clothing
and personal-care products.

In a meeting with reporters at the weekend, company Chairman
Zong Qinghou laid out the company's plan to become a diversified
consumer goods multinational. He said Wahaha is also planning to
open drinks factories in Indonesia and Thailand, probably next
year.

"I want to make this company big and strong, and I see that
the big companies in the world all have diversified operations,"
Zong said.

"This year our main goals are to continue to expand our
beverage products, and to do well in children's clothing," he
said. "In the second half of the year, we will develop some new
types of daily-use products, such as shampoo."

He defended the plan to expand beyond the company's core
beverage business, arguing that "for fast-moving consumer goods,
the sales channels and sales methods are all pretty much the
same."

"There still isn't a strong brand of children's clothing in
China," Zong said, nothing that while China is a major maker and
exporter of textiles and clothing, most of that is done under
contract for foreign companies. -- Dow Jones

;DJ;
ANPAf..r..
CorporateBrief-SKGroup-fraud
SK Group executives indicted
JP/14/brief

SK Group executives indicted

SEOUL: South Korean prosecutors on Tuesday indicted SK Group
owner Chey Tae-Won and nine top executives of the country's third
largest conglomerate on charges of accounting fraud and other
business irregularities.

The group was accused of manipulating accounts to inflate
earnings of its trading arm SK Global by 1.56 trillion won
(US$1.26 billion) in 2001, the Seoul district prosecutor's office
announced.

The formal indictment followed the arrests last month of Chey
and SK Group restructuring team chief Kim Chang-Keun as
prosecutors launched an investigation into allegations of illegal
stock trading and other wrongdoing.

Eight other senior SK Group officials, including group
chairman Son Kil-Seung, were indicted Tuesday but were not
detained.

Chey, the 42-year-old eldest son of the group's founding
family, was initially held during the course of the illegal stock
trading investigation. -- AFP