Cigarette producer pays last year's dividend

Cigarette producer pays last year's dividend

JAKARTA (JP): PT BAT Indonesia, a cigarette producer listed on the Jakarta and Surabaya stock exchanges, will pay a cash dividend of Rp 920 (41.25 U.S. cents) per share for the fiscal year ending in December 1994.

The dividend payout plan was approved during an annual shareholder meeting here yesterday, which also endorsed the company's 1994 balance sheet.

The company's president, Johannes Gerardus Priem, said that Rp 170 of the dividend was paid in September as an interim dividend.

"The final dividend of Rp 750 will be paid to shareholders on July 14," he said at the shareholder meeting.

BAT Indonesia, 70 percent owned by BAT Co. Ltd. London of Britain and 30 percent by the investing public, produces several brands of cigarettes such as Ardath, Commodore and Escort.

The company's net sale revenues increased by 22 percent to Rp 171.10 billion in 1994 from Rp 139.73 billion in 1993, while its after-tax profit posted a 97 percent rise to Rp 22.68 billion.

Priem said that BAT Indonesia, which, he claims, controls a 40 percent share of the country's non-clove cigarette market, is projected this year to continue growing at last year's growth rate.

"The rise in the sales will be around the same as the 1994 figure," he said, adding that the estimated sales growth will be higher than the growth of the country's total cigarette market, which is projected to reach 15 percent.

Mulialand

Unlike BAT Indonesia, PT Mulialand, a listed property company, will not distribute any dividends for the 1994 financial year despite a significant rise in the company's net profit.

Shareholders in Mulialand, a property arm of the diversified Mulia Group, agreed in an annual meeting on Tuesday to retain all of last year's profit to support the company's expansion program.

Mulialand's corporate secretary, R.D. Pryambodo, said that the meeting also approved the company's audited balance sheet for the 1994 book year.

Mulialand, which manages six office buildings, is currently constructing a condominium and shopping center on its Taman Anggrek Mall in West Jakarta.

The company reported a 136 percent increase in its operational income to Rp 162.7 billion in 1994, with a net profit rising by around 190 percent to Rp 77.2 billion.

Pryambodo said that the occupancy rates of the nearly 274,000 square meters of office buildings managed by Mulialand reached an average of 96.17 percent in 1994, rising from 90.16 percent in 1993.(hen)