Indosat's profilts rise by 59% to Rp 459b in 1995
Indosat's profilts rise by 59% to Rp 459b in 1995
JAKARTA (JP): The state-owned international telecommunications company PT Indosat yesterday reported a 59 percent rise in its net profit last year to Rp 459.4 billion (US$198.7 million) from Rp 289 billion in 1994.
The company's president, Tjahjono Soerjodibroto, told a press conference that Indosat's sales grew by 14.9 percent from Rp 909.3 billion in 1994 to Rp 1.04 trillion last year.
Indosat is listed on the New York and Jakarta stock exchanges.
According to Tjahjono, international telephone calls remained its major source of revenue in 1995 in spite of the operation of PT Satelindo, its only competitor in Indonesia.
"Revenues from international calls contributed Rp 964.4 billion or 92.3 percent of Indosat's total operating revenue," he said.
He said that the volume of last year's international calls increased by 15.3 percent to 492.5 million minutes from 427.2 million minutes in 1994.
However, last year's 15.3 percent growth in international calls was far lower than the 20.7 percent recorded in 1994, he said.
International calls totaled 353.8 million minutes in 1993.
Tjahjono said that out of the international calls in 1995, 285.9 million minutes were incoming calls (indicating an increase of 16.8 percent), while 206.6 million minutes were outgoing calls (an increase of 13.2 percent).
"The slower growth rate in outgoing calls showed that Indosat faced competition from Satelindo, which gained a market share of 3.7 percent," he said.
Tjahjono said that Indosat's operational expenses rose just 5.5 percent to Rp 545.4 billion in 1995 from Rp 516.8 billion in 1994.
New projects
Tjahjono also said that to increase the number of customers for its international service, Indosat planned to improve its promotions.
Indosat currently lists some 352,000 customers on its international call service.
He said that Indosat last year installed 1,281 international circuits, bringing the total number of its international circuits to 5,774.
"Indosat has also set up new gateways and telephone network distribution centers, as well as satellite ground stations in Surabaya, East Java, at Pantai Cermin, North Sumatra, and in Batam, Riau, to cope with increasing demand," he said, adding that a submarine cable linking the Jakarta and Surabaya gateways would be ready for service this year.
He said that Indosat would also start separating its billing system from that of the state-owned domestic telecommunications firm PT Telkom.
"As a first step, we will start in Bandung, West Java, as a pilot project. The system will be introduced later in Jakarta, Medan and Surabaya," he said.
He said Indosat would also start Internet services in the first quarter of this year.
Tjahjono said Indosat purchased a 0.11 percent stake in Astel, the second largest personal handy phone provider in Japan.
Personal handy phones are a kind of wireless telephone system using high frequencies,
He said that Indosat, through one of its subsidiaries PT Sisindosat, had acquired a 20 percent stake in USA Global Link, a telecoms provider in the United States which provides various telecommunication serves.
"The acquisition would generate a synergy in tapping the fast growing and changing nature of the future telecommunications industry," he said.
Tjahjono said that his company had also participated in Acasia, a strategic alliance among telecommunications firm in Southeast Asian nations.
Acasia will start integrated international telecommunications service later this year, he said.
He said Indosat also planned to enter the cable manufacturing business after obtaining government approval late last year. (icn)