Ciputra plans E. Java housing project

JAKARTA (JP): PT Ciputra Development plans to invest Rp 250 billion (US$106 million) this year to develop its Citra Harmoni housing complex just south of Surabaya, East Java.

Company director Harun Hajadi said that Ciputra would build about 15,000 small houses at the 500-hectare complex in the industrial town of Sidoardjo.

He said the company would start building houses in the middle of this year and complete them all within five years.

The houses' prices are to range from Rp 25 million to Rp 50 million.

"The project will tap the growing market of industrial workers in Sidoardjo's industrial estates," he said.

Investment in the project will be 35 percent funded by Ciputra's equity and the rest by bank loans.

He said 11 local banks had expressed interest in financing the project but he refused to mention which bank would lead the syndicate.

Hajadi said that publicly listed Ciputra Development's net profit, which was Rp 93 billion for 1995, was estimated to have increased to Rp 130.6 billion last year.

The firm had projected to record sales of Rp 720.3 billion and a net profit of Rp 163 billion in 1997, he said, adding that net profit was expected to reach Rp 250 billion in the year 2000.

"Our mission is to have sales of Rp 1 trillion a year by the year 2000," he said.

Ciputra Development, the developer of several major residential projects and office buildings, is developing a middle-class residential complex in the eastern part of Jakarta.

He said that PT Ciputra Development sold 3,660 houses in 1995 and it aimed to sell 8,103 houses in 1997. (09)