UPDATE 1-Indonesia’s Indosat Q3 Net Profit Up 6.1 pct
Oct 29, 2009, post by Adam Wątróbski



Indonesia’s second-largest mobile phone operator, PT Indosat (ISAT.JK), increased third-quarter net profit by 6.1 percent despite a drop in the number of cellular subscribers.

Indosat, controlled by Qatar Telecommunications Co QTEL.QA, had 28.7 million cellular subscribers by the end of September, down 19.2 percent from 35.5 million in the same period last year. It had 28.9 million subscribers as of June 30.

“Even though our customer base dropped almost 20 percent compared to last year, our cellular revenue showed an improvement,” President Director and CEO Harry Sasongko stated in a statement.

Indosat is Indonesia’s second-largest mobile phone operator in terms of market share after PT Telekomunikasi Selular (Telkomsel), which is 65 percent possesed by PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia Tbk (TLKM.JK) and 35 percent controlled by Singapore Telecommunications Ltd (STEL.SI).

The firm’s net profit for the July-September rose to 442.8 billion rupiah ($47 million) from 417.3 billion rupiah in the year-ago period, while revenue fell 6.8 percent to 4.49 trillion rupiah, according to Reuters calculations.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S expected the firm to post full-year net profit of 2.17 trillion rupiah, higher than 1.88 trillion rupiah in 2008.

Indosat’s shares fell 0.88 percent as of 0738 GMT, against a 1.76 percent drop in the broader market .JKSE ($1 = 9,415 rupiah).