Telkomsel revenue up 47% to Rp 11t
Telkomsel revenue up 47% to Rp 11t
JAKARTA: PT Telekomunikasi Selular Indonesia, or Telkomsel, the country's largest cellular phone company, Wednesday said 2003 revenue rose by 47 percent on year due to an increase in its subscribers base.
Revenue last year rose to Rp 11 trillion (US$1.3 billion) from Rp 7.5 trillion a year earlier, Telkomsel spokesman Suryo Hadiyanto told reporters.
The company's subscribers for the year rose 60 percent to 9.6 million from 6 million in 2002.
Due to the market's low penetration rate, Telkomsel expects its subscribers to increase by around 50 percent this year to around 14.6 million.
About 8 percent of Indonesia's 220 million people currently have cell phones - among the lowest penetration rates in Asia.
The spokesman didn't reveal other key financial figures.
Telkomsel is 65 percent-owned by state-owned PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia and 35 percent-owned by Singapore Telecommunications Ltd, or Singtel. -- Dow Jones
;AFP; ANPAf..r.. Corporate-Germany-VW VW's Golf sales disappointing JP/14/Brief
VW's Golf sales disappointing
FRANKFURT: Volkswagen (VW), Europe's biggest car maker, is disappointed so far with sales of its new Golf V, the model which the group hoped would steer it back to success after a difficult year in 2003, a top VW executive indicated in a magazine interview released on Wednesday.
"Sales figures aren't progressing as fast as we'd hoped," VW's sales director Detlef Wittig told the financial weekly Focus Money in an interview released ahead of publication on Thursday.
"No matter how strong the Golf is, it cannot drive the entire economy on its own," Wittig said, adding that while the car maker was officially sticking to its sales target for the new Golf of 600,000 this year, that was on the assumption that the economy would continue to recover this year.
Last year, sales of the Golf V already fell short of the expected target of 135,000, with VW pointing the finger at technical problems.
The Golf accounts for around one third of VW's overall profits and 15 percent of sales and the new Golf V was launched just five months ago. -- AFP