Indonesia's Antam reports a surge in net profits of 719%
By Lara Wozniak |
2 May 2007
The mining company reaps the benefits of expansion during a time of high nickel
prices.
Its not everyday you get to announce that your net profit has surged 719% in
the first quarter to Rp1,073 billion ($119 million).
But Indonesias Antam did just that on Monday. For several years, FinanceAsia
has been following the start-and-go expansion efforts of Antam and in the first
quarter these efforts finally paid off. A new smelter added to operations over
the last quarter, during a time when its core commodity is fetching
higher-than-usual prices, gave it a winning combination.
We are delighted with our first quarter results. We are creating huge profits
from these unprecedented high nickel prices," says president director Dedi
Aditya Sumanagara. "However, we recognise the increase is also due to the
commercial operations of our new ferronickel smelter, FeNi III, which boosted
nickel output by 61% to 4,353 tonnes. The timing of our expansion couldnt have
been better. Were going to concentrate on cost reduction and growth investment
and look forward to a fantastic 2007. advertisement
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Antams net sales increased 324% to $260 million, more revenue than Antam has
ever made in a single quarter before, and more than the annual revenues Antam
earned prior to 2003. The surge in revenues is largely due to increased
ferronickel and nickel ore sales volumes and prices.
Ferronickel earned an additional Rp866 billion, or 440%, resulting in Rp1,063
billion in revenues. Nickel ore contributed an additional Rp860 billion, or
355% increase, resulting in Rp1,102 billion in revenues. Meanwhile, gold sales
increased 110% to Rp143 billion, while sales of silver, the by-product of gold
production, rose 150% to Rp20 billion.
As a result, nickel ore and ferronickel contributed 46% and 45% of first
quarter revenues, with gold, bauxite ore and silver contributing 6%, 2% and 1%
respectively.
Antams operating expenses increased 109% to Rp77 billion, representing a small
segment of Antams overall costs. The main reasons for the increase were the
56% increase in general and administration expenses to Rp53 billion and due to
the exploration expense increasing from Rp0.2 billion to Rp21 billion. With a
comparatively smaller increase of operating expenses, Antams operating income
surged almost 10 times, or 863%, to Rp1,424 billion, resulting in a wider
operating margin of 60% compared to 26%.
It also announced first quarter earnings per share of Rp562.62.
Copyright FinanceAsia.com Ltd., a subsidiary of Haymarket Media Ltd
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