Lonsum wants 1997 to be more profitable

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)