Telkom's profit up 41.2%

Telkom's profit up 41.2%

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

State-owned telecommunications firm PT Telekomunikasi
Indonesia (Telkom) reported on Wednesday a 41.2 percent increase
in its audited consolidated net profit to Rp 4.25 trillion
(US$425 million) last year, up from Rp 3.01 trillion in 2000.

The publicly listed company's net income per share rose to Rp
421.64 from Rp 298.61.

Telkom said in a statement that the increase in cellular and
interconnection revenues drove the higher profit.

Earnings rose after the company bought a 35 percent stake in
Telkomsel from the state international call operator PT
Indonesian Satellite Corp (Indosat) in May last year, boosting
its ownership to 77 percent in the country's largest cellular
company.

Telkom however sold its 12.72 percent stake in Telkomsel to
Singapore Telecommunication Ltd (Singtel) for $429 million early
this month, reducing the former's stake to 65 percent and
increasing the latter's interest to 35 percent.

Telkom's consolidated operating revenues grew 33.2 percent to
Rp 16.13 trillion last year, from Rp 12.11 trillion in 2000,
while its operating expenses rose by 32.4 percent to Rp 8.52
trillion from Rp 6.43 trillion.

An increase in operating revenues and operating expenses
resulted in a 34.1 percent increase in operating income to Rp
7.62 trillion last year from Rp 5.68 trillion in the previous
year.

Earning Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization
(EBITDA) rose to 29 percent to Rp 10.44 trillion last year from
Rp 8.10 trillion in 2000.

Telkom budgeted Rp 3.6 trillion for capital expenditures last
year, of which it spent some Rp 1.87 trillion. The company spent
Rp 731.5 billion on infrastructure development, Rp 938.7 billion
for phone mobile view Internet service (PMVIS), and the other Rp
196.4 billion was spent on supporting facilities.

Total subscribers of Telkom's cellular affiliates hit 3.38
million last year, while its fixed-line subscribers rose to 7.22
million, from 6.62 million.

Aside from Telkomsel, Telkom also has stakes in four other
cellular operators, that is Komselindo, Metrosel, Mobisel and
Telesera.

Telkom is preparing to issue local bonds worth Rp 1 trillion
and international bonds worth between $100 million and $150
million to finance its investment plan for 2002-2005, including
building backbone transmissions, and fixed-line switching
facilities.

Recently, Telkom signed a $63.5 million loan agreement with
Citibank N.A. and PT Bank Central Asia (BCA) to finance the
development of its transmission network on Sumatra island.

It was also granted a commercial loan worth $6.95 million from
Citibank and export credits worth $44.4 million from two foreign
banks Hermes Kreditversicherungs AG and Servizi Assicurativi del
Commercio Estero.