Gudang Garam's profit rises 1.2%

Gudang Garam's profit rises 1.2%

JAKARTA: PT Gudang Garam, Indonesia's biggest cigarette maker by volume, said profit rose 1.2 percent in the first nine months of the year as more smokers bought its clove- flavored cigarettes.

Unaudited net income rose to Rp 1.52 trillion (US$167 million), or Rp 789 a share, from Rp 1.50 trillion, or Rp 780, the Kediri, East Java-based company said in a statement to the Jakarta Stock Exchange. Sales rose to Rp 18.9 trillion from Rp 17.9 trillion a year earlier.

Gudang Garam, PT H.M. Sampoerna and PT Djarum, the top three cigarette makers in the nation of 235 million people, control more than 80 percent of the local market, where 90 percent of the 141 million smokers prefer "kretek" cigarettes that contain a mixture of tobacco and sweet-smelling clove spice. -- Bloomberg