Indonesia's largest coal miner, PT Bumi Resources Tbk BUMI.JK, suffered an unexpected net loss in the fourth quarter, as adjustments linked to asset sales overshadowed the impact of booming coal prices. Last year, Bumi sold 30 percent stakes in two of its coal mines, PT Kaltim Prima Coal and PT Arutmin Indonesia, to India's Tata Power Co for $1.3 billion. Analysts expect higher coal prices and output to help Indonesia's second-largest listed company to post a stronger performance this year. "For 2008, we expect much stronger topline and earnings growth on the back of stronger coal price outlook, and 13 percent growth in the production volume," Deutsche Bank said in a research note. Indonesia is the world's largest thermal coal exporter and miners in the country have been performing well due to high coal prices, strong demand from China and India, and supply constraints in Australia. Nonetheless, Bumi made a net loss of $11.02 million in the October-December period, compared to a $69.3 million net profit a year ago, according to Reuters calculations based on its full-year results and published nine-month results. The company was hit by a deduction of $76.9 million in minority interests in the net income of subsidiaries during the fourth quarter, compared to a $2.58 million deduction last year, also according to Reuters calculations Excluding the minority adjustment, Bumi would have made a net profit of $14.7 million in the final quarter, against a $66.97 million profit a year ago. Bumi, which is controlled by the family of Indonesia's chief social welfare minister, Aburizal Bakrie, also suffered a foreign exchange loss of $3.3 million in the fourth quarter compared to a $7.1 million gain a year ago. The loss came despite Bumi seeing a 22 percent rise in fourth-quarter revenue and a 73 percent jump in operating income. Dileep Srivastava, Bumi's senior vice president for investor relations, said the firm was maintaining a 2008 sales volume target of 62 million tonnes, up from 55.43 million in 2007. He also said the company, which aims to boost coal production to between 90-100 million tonnes by 2010, would see an average FOB coal price of $62 a tonne, up from $43.97 a tonne last year. Bumi reported on Tuesday a 2007 net profit of $789 million on Tuesday, up from $222.3 million in 2006. Its full year revenue climbed to $2.27 billion from $1.85 billion a year earlier. Analysts polled by Reuters Estimates had expected the company to book a net profit of around $824 million in 2007, implying a fourth quarter net profit of $23.8 million. Shares in Bumi, which has a market capitalisation of about $13 billion, were trading down 4 percent by midday, compared with about a 2 percent fall in the overall index .JKSE. In the fourth quarter, Bumi's shares jumped 67.8 percent, outpacing a 16.4 percent rise in the overall index.
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