Real estate company says profits to increase

JAKARTA (JP): PT Pudjiadi Prestige, a real estate developer listed on the Jakarta Stock Exchange, is predicting a 32 percent increase in its sales and a 10 percent rise in its net profits this year.

"Net profits had already reached Rp 7.3 billion in the first quarter of this year," the company said in a statement yesterday.

However, the developer said the projected growth in sales and profits was much lower than the growth the company booked in 1994.

Last year the sales of the company, which runs a number of apartment buildings and other residential housing facilities, more than tripled to Rp 68.92 billion (US$31.32 million) from Rp 21.52 billion in the previous year, while its net profits nearly quadrupled to Rp 20.65 billion from Rp 5.75 billion.

In 1994 the company developed the Kelapa Gading Tower Condominium and Marbella Residencia in Jakarta and the Kuta Palace Residence in Bali.

Early this year, the company purchased a 55 percent stake in PT Juwara Warga Hotel Corporation, a hotel chain which manages three hotels, respectively located in Bali, Yogyakarta and Lombok.

However, PT Pudjiadi Prestige's affiliated public company, PT Pudjiadi & Sons Estates, suffered a 10.19 percent drop in its net profits last year to Rp 3.26 billion in 1994, down from Rp 3.63 billion in 1993.

PT Pudjadi & Sons Estates's operating revenues rose slightly to Rp 29.73 billion last year from Rp 29.34 billion in the previous year.

The company, which manages a number of hotels, attributed the drop in the profits to the sharp increase in its operating costs, saying that it had put a lot of money into the improvement of its hotel services.

It said that the improvement in the quality of services and the opening of the Jayakarta Suites Hotel in Bandung early this year were expected to make a significant contribution to its earnings in 1995.(hen)