Indofood's profit soars

JAKARTA (JP): Publicly listed food giant PT Indofood Sukses Makmur reported on Tuesday a net profit of Rp 153.4 billion (US$19.7 million) for the first quarter of this year, a 442 percent increase over the same period of 1998.

"This quarter's results even exceeded the whole year of 1998's net profit of Rp 150.2 billion," the company said in a statement.

The company's net sales grew 57.7 percent to Rp 2.8 trillion in the first quarter against Rp 1.8 trillion in the same period last year.

The largest contribution of sales came from noodles, 40 percent, followed by edible oils and fats, 25 percent, and milled flour, 23 percent.

Indofood, the world's largest producer of noodles, sold 2.1 billion packets of noodle in the first quarter, a 10 percent drop from the same period last year.

The company said its total assets reached Rp 10.5 trillion ($1.4 billion) by the end of March, with outstanding foreign currency loans worth US$773 million. (rid)