Ramayana profit drops 43 %: Report

JAKARTA : PT Ramayana Lestari Sentosa, one of Indonesia's largest department store operators, Wednesday reported a 43 percent fall in first-half net profit to Rp 84.69 billion, due to foreign exchange losses and a decline in interest income.

Ramayana posted net profit of Rp 147.41 billion a year earlier.

Interest income decreased to Rp 34.84 billion from Rp 41.19 billion. The company also booked foreign exchange losses of Rp 16.96 billion, swinging from foreign exchange gains of Rp 69.91 billion a year earlier.

It didn't provide further comment on its performance.

Analysts said Ramayana is cash-rich and is parking excess funds in time deposits. Consequently, declining interest rates in Indonesia's dragged down the company's interest income.

The company's assets expanded to Rp 2.06 trillion from Rp 1.63 trillion.

Sales rose to Rp 1.25 trillion from Rp 971.61 billion in the year-ago first half, boosting gross profit to Rp 346.07 billion from Rp 254.63 billion, and operating income to Rp 78.27 billion from Rp 75.07 billion.

This means that on the operating level, the company grew during the first half compared with the same period last year. -- Dow Jones