Astra's profit decreased 5 percent

The largest automaker and distributor PT Astra International Tbk booked total sales of Rp61.17 trillion (almost US$6.22 billion) in 2005, increased 36 percent from Rp44.92 trillion (US$4.83 billion) in 2004. Sounds good. But look at the sales in US dollars, the actual growth was just 28.77 percent as the rupiah depreciated around 6 percent against US dollars last year.
As costs of goods sold jumped 37 percent, Astra booked 33 percent increase in gross profit at Rp13.72 trillion. Operating expenses also increased by 37 percent due to huge increase in general and administration costs. As a result Astra booked Rp6.41 trillion (US$652 million) of operating profit, a growth of 28.9 percent from 2004.
With significant growth in the contribution of associated and jointly controlled entities at Rp2.16 trillion, Astra's performance actually more 'real' than the previous year with almost Rp575 billion of gain in foreign exchangetranslation.

All in all, Astra then booked net profit of Rp5.457 trillion (US$551 million), 0.96 percent higher than Rp5.40 trillion (US$581 million) even though in US dollar the company's profit actually lower by 5.16 percent.

With the huge drop in automotive sales in the first three months of 2006, Astra is facing a difficult year.

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