PT Indosat buys stake in Japanese cable TV firm

PT Indosat buys stake in Japanese cable TV firm

JAKARTA (JP): State-owned PT Indosat has spent US$2.1 million
acquiring a 5 percent stake in the Japanese cable-television firm
Suginami, majority owned by Jupiter, in its bid to enter the
cable television business in developed countries.

Company president Tjahjono Soerjodibroto said yesterday the
deal, completed Oct. 31, was one of Indosat's moves to diversify
and enter the multimedia industry.

Indosat has also acquired a 40 percent stake in PT Yasawirya
Tama Cipta, a Jakarta-based video recording firm, and set up PT
Indosat Mega Media, he said following a teleconference on
Indosat's financial report for the January-September period.

Indosat reported a 5.4 percent increase in its after-tax
profit to Rp 361.1 billion ($154 million) in the first nine
months of this year over the same period of 1995.

Tjahjono said the January-September profit represented a net
income of Rp 348.7 per share, or $1.5 per American Depository
Share.

Indosat floated shares on the New York and Jakarta Stock
Exchanges in October 1994. The company's share price was
unchanged Tuesday at $30.75 per American Depository Share on the
New York Stock Exchange. Its share price on the Jakarta Stock
Exchange closed Rp 25 higher at Rp 7,325 yesterday.

In the first half of this year, the company's profit increased
6.42 percent to Rp 235.1 billion.

Tjahjono said Indosat expected its profit to rise between 7
percent and 9 percent this year over last year's Rp 459.4 billion
profit.

He said operating profit for the first nine months of this
year rose 9.5 percent to Rp 420.5 billion ($179 million) from Rp
384.1 billion in the corresponding period last year.

"During the January to September period, we witnessed stronger
growth of international telephone traffic and high-speed leased
line services as compared to that of the same period of last
year," he said.

"This performance strengthens our confidence that the
declining trend in international accounting rates and increasing
competition will not affect our operational performance
significantly."

Stronger

Indosat's international telephone traffic from January to
September was 426.6 million minutes, 17.6 percent higher than in
the same period last year. Incoming international traffic was
243.2 million minutes, up 14.3 percent from 210.6 million in
1995, while outgoing international traffic was 183.4 million
minutes, up 22.4 percent from 152.2 million minutes.

Indosat's international call revenue for the first nine months
of this year rose 13.9 percent to Rp 810.8 billion from Rp 711.7
billion in the same period of 1995.

Tjahjono said that despite the healthy figures, demand for
some Indosat services had fallen. Forty-eight low-speed leased-
line circuits were occupied in the first half of this year, down
22.6 percent from 62 circuits in the same period of 1995. Telex
services were used for 4.8 million minutes, down 16.3 percent
from 5.7 million. Packet Switched Data Network services were used
for 1.4 million minutes, down 29.7 percent from 1.9 million
during the same period last year.

Indosat's marketing vice president Bambang Sulistyo said the
company had a 91.7 percent market share of the country's
international telecommunication services in the first nine months
of this year: 89.8 percent of the market for outgoing services
and 93.2 percent for incoming services.

Besides Indosat, the ministry of tourism, post and
telecommunications has awarded exclusive rights to operate the
country's international telecommunications services to PT
Satelindo until the year 2005. (icn)