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Indonesia: Lower costs push up Indofood’s net profit 25% in first nine months
Publicly listed food conglomerate PT Indofood Sukses Makmur booked double-digit net profit growth from January to September period this year from the same period a year ago, with moderate sales growth thanks to lower costs.
Indofood’s overall sales, with products and services that include instant noodles, wheat flour, palm oil and seasonings, grew 5.67 percent year-on-year (yoy) to Rp 57.85 trillion (US$4.1 billion) in the nine-month period.
Net profit soared 25 percent to Rp 3.53 trillion yoy during the same period as costs associated with financing slid 30.65 percent.
President director and CEO Anthoni Salim said the company’s robust financial performance was supported by its flour and processed food business units.
“CBP and Bogasari Group continued to report strong performances, while the Agribusiness Group was undermined by lower CPO [crude palm oil] prices over the year. Moving forward, we will remain focused on seizing opportunities and maintaining our competitive advantages,” Anthoni said in a statement.
During the January to September period of this year, the company’s publicly listed processed food subsidiary, PT Indofood CBP Sukses Makmur (ICBP), recorded 11.2 percent yoy sales growth to Rp 32.79 trillion.
The rise in sales consequently increased its net profit, which, as of September, increased 15.92 percent yoy to Rp 3.88 trillion from Rp 3.48 trillion the year before.
Anthoni said ICBP was able to achieve the double-digit growth in sales and net profit by focusing on its strategy of boosting distribution and strengthening its position in the market.
Despite the strong performance in processed food, Indofood still faced pressure from its agribusiness group due to low CPO prices throughout the year.
“Going forward, we will remain prudent and adjust ourselves dynamically in facing the global and domestic economic developments, as well as focus on grabbing on to any available opportunities,” Anthoni said.
Source: https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2019/10/31/lower-costs-push-up-indofoods-net-profit-25-in-first-nine-months.html