ASII booked Rp 4.65 trillion (US$ 511 million) in net profits in the first three months of the year, an 8 percent increase compared to Rp 4.3 trillion in the same period last year.
The growth in net profits was supported by a 20 percent jump in consolidated revenue to Rp 46.35 trillion in the first quarter of the year from Rp 38.69 trillion in 2011.
ASII president director Prijono Sugiarto said the company expected a short-term impact from the implementation of minimum down-payments for automotive loans on its subsidiaries in the automotive business and financial services sector.
The central bank, Bank Indonesia, will implement on June 15 new regulations that demand a minimum down payment of 25 percent for motorcycle loans and 30 percent for car loans.
The Association of Indonesian Automotive manufacturers (Gaikindo) recently downgraded its estimate of the country’s automotive sales to 875,000 units this year from a previous projection of 940,000 units as a consequence of the regulation.
According to Gaikindo, 65 percent of sales of new cars in the country are supported by credit from financing institutions.
Prior to the regulations, customer could take home motorcycles and cars after paying only 10 to 15 percent of the vehicle’s total price. In some cases, down payments were even waived.
ASII, which relies heavily on its automotive businesses compared to other segments, including mining services and agriculture, is expected to suffer from the new down-payment regulations.
The automotive business contributed about 52 percent of ASII’s revenue during the first quarter of the year. Meanwhile, financial services — in which ASII has subsidiaries, such as PT Astra Sedaya Finance and PT Toyota Astra Finance, providing loans for various popular automotive brands — contributed about 6 percent to the group’s total revenue.
Nationally sales of cars increased by 11 percent to 251,000 units in the first three months of the year, of which ASII took a 58 percent share with sales totaling 146,000 units.
Meanwhile, the group also achieved an increased share of the motorcycle market to 55 percent, with sales of 1.1 million Honda units, out of national motorcycle sales of 1.9 million units.
ASII also saw an increased contribution from its heavy equipment and mining segments. Its 59.6 percent owned subsidiary, PT United Tractors (UNTR), managed a 17.63 percent increase in net profits to Rp 1.53 trillion, up from Rp 1.3 trillion in the first quarter of 2011.
UNTR reaped Rp 15.03 trillion in revenue during the January to March period, increasing by 18 percent from Rp 12.65 trillion in the same period last year.
ASII experienced a lower contribution of Rp 301 billion from its agribusiness subsidiary. Its 79.7 percent owned subsidiary PT Astra Agro Lestari (AALI) suffered a 42 percent drop in net profits to Rp 378 billion in the January-to-March period from Rp 654 billion in the same period last year.
“Although production increased by 5 percent to 289,000 tons, decreases in the average price of CPO [Crude Palm Oil] by 7 percent as well as growing production and operational costs led to AALI’s lower performance,” ASII said.
Another subsidiary, PT Bank Permata, reported a slight increase in net profits of 3 percent to Rp 331 billion, thanks to growing interest income and fee-based income.
Component manufacturer PT Astra Otoparts, of which ASII holds 95.7 percent ownership, reported Rp 263 billion in net profits, a slight 2 percent increase year on year.
Shares in ASII closed at Rp 70,900 on Wednesday, maintaining its position as the largest company by market capitalization with Rp 287 trillion out of the bourse’s total value of Rp 3,921 trillion as of Wednesday.
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