Centris expects higher revenues

JAKARTA (JP): Publicly listed transportation company PT Centris Multipersada Pratama Tbk (CMPP) estimates its pretax profit this year will increase by about 50 percent to Rp 6.4 billion ($673,700) from Rp 4.2 billion last year, a company executive has said.

Finance director Omar Danni Hasan said here on Monday the projected increase in profit would result from the rise in taxi fares and the increase in revenue from new taxis.

"We are sure we will meet the target," he said in a public presentation.

The company, which operates 13 taxi companies in Jakarta and several other major cities in the country, expects a 25 percent increase in total revenue to Rp 50 billion this year from Rp 40 billion in 2000, he said.

Omar said that the company would buy about 100 new cars for its Jakarta taxi services which include taxi companies Mercuri, Kartika, Liberty and Radio Taxi (Ratax).

"We've spent about Rp 9 billion on the expansion of fleets," he said, adding that this year's fleet expansion would be solely for Ratax.

Omar said the company's financial results, which plunged into the red in 1998, had started to improve again in the last two years in line with the recovery in some economic sectors.

In 1998 the company booked a net loss of Rp 10.4 billion as compared to a net profit of Rp 12.5 billion in 1997. The profit surged again in 1999 to reach Rp 570 million.

The profit growth in 1999 was attributed to the decreasing cost of maintenance by 33.1 percent and financing cost by 67.7 percent, despite employee cost increasing to 11 percent.

CMPP provides taxi services in Jakarta, Medan, Bandung, Semarang, Surakarta, Yogyakarta, Sidoarjo, East Java, Surabaya and Malang. It operates 2,739 sedan taxis with 4,800 drivers.(05)