Pertamina subsidiaries chalk up robust growth

JAKARTA (JP): State oil and gas company Pertamina announced significant profit increases for most of its subsidiaries in the 1998/1999 fiscal year despite the economic crisis.

In a statement submitted on Monday to the House of Representatives' Commission V which includes supervision of mines and energy, the company said its air transportation arm Pelita Air Service increased its unaudited net profit 364 percent to Rp 137.9 billion (US$20.4 million) for the fiscal year 1998/1999 ending on March 31, 1999, from Rp 29.7 billion in the previous fiscal year.

Its hotel chain PT Patra Jasa posted an unaudited net profit of Rp 22.9 billion, a 87.4 percent increase from Rp 12.2 billion.

Barge company PT Pertamina Tongkang posted an unaudited before tax profit of Rp 64.7 billion, up 8.8 percent from Rp 59.5 billion.

Shipbuilding company PT Patra Dok Dumai recorded an unaudited net profit of Rp 4.7 billion, a 463 percent increase from Rp 840 million.

Pertamina said PT Elnusa Harapan, which is active in information technology and refinery maintenance, recorded a net profit of Rp 1.6 billion for 1997/1998, but it did not specify the company's net profit for 1998/1999.

Insurance firm PT Tugu Pratama Indonesia, which is the country's largest insurance firm with a monopoly on the country's oil and gas industry, recorded an unaudited net profit of Rp 259 billion for the fiscal year of 1998/1999, a 60 percent increase from Rp 165 billion the previous fiscal year.

Oil export import company PT Perta Oil Marketing was the only one among Pertamina's subsidiaries which registered decreasing net profit.

It recorded an unaudited net profit of $16.2 million, a 33.4 percent decrease from $24.4 million in the previous fiscal year.

In the past, former president Soeharto's son Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra and golfing partner Mohamad "Bob" Hasan respectively owned 25 percent shares in the company, with the remaining 50 percent share held by Pertamina and its pension fund.

Pertamina earlier announced acquisition of the shares of Tommy and Bob in its efforts to root out corruption, collusion and nepotism in the company.

Pertamina recorded an unaudited consolidated net profit of Rp 2.7 trillion for the fiscal year 1998/1999, a 844 percent increase from Rp 295 billion the previous fiscal year.(jsk)