Developer upbeat it can meet target

Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang

Publicly listed property developer PT Lippo Karawaci is confident that it can reach its targeted Rp 2.1 trillion (US$205.6 million) revenue and Rp 355 billion net profit.

"Looking at our first half performance this year, we believe that we can reach the targets by year end," company president director Viven G. Sitiabudi said at a press conference on Friday.

In its unaudited financial statement, the company's sales as of June 30 reached Rp 952 billion compared to Rp 713 billion in the corresponding period last year. Its net profit also increased to Rp 171 billion from Rp 113 billion in the same period last year.

Lucyanna Pandjaitan, the company's chief financial officer, said the completion of some property projects -- Depok Town Square in West Java, Medan Grand Palladium in North Sumatra and City of Tomorrow in Surabaya -- along with income from other business units would help the company reach its targeted revenue.

Lippo Karawaci currently manages three business units in the areas of property, health care and hospitals, and infrastructure and hospitality.

Lucyanna said property has contributed 60 percent of the earnings of the company while the remaining 40 percent came from the other two divisions.

She cited increasing construction material prices -- as a result of the weakening rupiah and the March 1 fuel price hike -- would not affect the company's ongoing property projects as they near completion.

"As we don't use much imported components for the construction projects, the finishing cost is relatively small," she said.

The company's optimism in the growing property sector is reflected in its plan to launch more property projects including the Kemang village housing project, Depok apartment project, a town development project in Cikarang, all in the Greater Jakarta, and Tanjung Bunga housing project in Makassar, South Sulawesi.