Lonsum wants 1997 to be more profitable

JAKARTA (JP): Plantation company PT PP London Sumatra Indonesia (Lonsum) wants to increase its 1997 profit by between 15 percent and 25 percent over last year's Rp 80.61 billion (US$32.97 million), an executive said here yesterday.

Lonsum's president, Geoffrey Brown, said after an extraordinary shareholders' meeting that the planned profit increase was expected to come from better palm oil production after the harvest of its new North Sumatra plantation.

He said the new plantation was likely to supply 11,000 tons of palm oil, which would account for about 8 percent of the company's total palm oil output this year.

Lonsum reported a net profit of Rp 20.81 billion in the first quarter of this year, a 28 percent increase over Rp 15.98 billion in the same period of 1996.

The company is developing 90,000 hectares of plantations, 75,000 hectares in South Sumatra and 15,000 hectares in East Kalimantan.

Seventy percent of the South Sumatra plantation will be planted with oil palms and the rest with rubber trees. The plantation in East Kalimantan will be planted with oil palms.

Director of development Muhammad Akib said the company had already planted oil palms on 21,600 hectares in South Sumatra and East Kalimantan, and rubber trees on 7,162 hectares.

Brown said Lonsum had 148,000 hectares, 76,000 hectares had been planted with oil palms, rubber trees, coffee, tea and cacao.

Lonsum, established in 1906, is 60.6 percent owned by PT Pan London Sumatra Plantations, 20.2 percent by Happy Cheer Limited, 5.7 percent by Norbax Inc and 14.5 percent by the public.

Yesterday's meeting approved the distribution of Rp 22 billion in dividends and the issuance of 283,274,421 bonus shares each with a nominal value of Rp 500. (13)