Indosat profit up 80%

Telecommunications company PT Indosat announced on Monday a nearly 80 percent increase in its first semester net profit compared to the same period last year thanks to strong revenue growth in its cellular division.

The publicly listed company said that net profit jumped to Rp 717.60 billion (US$78 million) compared to Rp 402.10 billion previously as revenue from the cellular division surged by 51 percent.

From January to June, Indosat expanded the number of its cellular service subscribers to 7.35 million, or a 70.5 percent increase compared to the same period last year, boosting revenue to Rp 3.37 trillion from Rp 2.23 trillion.

The jump in profit was also contributed to by a 17.8 percent increase in the multimedia, data communication and internet divisions. However, the first semester saw a 4.2 percent drop in the international call division, and a 29.3 percent dip in other divisions.

In anticipating increased cellular service demand in the first semester, Indosat launched various marketing and promotion programs for Matrix-9 (no roaming or subscriber fees for post- paid services), and holiday packages for Mentari and IM3, and launched its fixed wireless access "Star One" service.

Indosat, which is 41.94 percent owned by Singapore-based Temasek Holdings via ST Telemedia, also plans to allocate up to $700 million for capital investment this year, 80 percent of which will be allocated to its cellular business. -- JP