0 Indonesian Gold Miner Antam Unearths 55% Increase in Profit

State-controlled gold and nickel miner Aneka Tambang announced an increase in its audited net income on Monday after a previously issued preliminary report had indicated a large decline in earnings. The company said its net income rose 55 percent to Rp 2.99 trillion ($308 million) last year. Its revenue was relatively flat, with only 1 percent growth this year to Rp 10.45 trillion. Last month, in a preliminary report to stock exchanges in Jakarta and Sydney, the company said its net income had fallen to Rp 1.07 trillion. 

Herman Koeswanto, an analyst with Mandiri Sekuritas, said in a commentary note on Monday that the newly discovered net income came from “other non-cash items from the asset revaluation from its investment in associates.” This income amounted to Rp 2.48 trillion according to Antam’s financial statement. Bahana Securities said in a note on Monday that the net income was 250 percent higher than its forecast and 209 percent higher than the forecast of a group of analysts monitored by Bloomberg. 

According to Herman, Antam’s operation was mostly supported by good nickel ore sales compared to other commodities like ferronickel and gold. He noted that nickel ore sales were recorded at Rp 3.07 trillion, a growth of 25 percent from a year earlier, due to a strong production volume of 9.5 million wet metric tons, a 18 percent increase from the previous year. Ferronickel production declined by 8 percent in 2012 to 18,372 tons of nickel in ferronickel (TNi), while its sales remained relatively flat at 19,527 TNi, compared with 19,530 TNi in 2011.

Antam’s report in February said that gold production stood at only 2,849 kilograms, short of its target of 3,000 kilograms. It sold 7,024 kilogram of gold, a decrease from 8,009 kilogram a year earlier. Most of the gold sales volume was supported by gold purchase from third party miner, which Herman said “compressed the overall margin.” This year, the company aims to produce a total of 3,316 kilograms of gold. Some 2,000 kilograms of this is expected to come from its Pongkor mine and 1,316 kilograms from the Cibaliung mine. Antam also hopes to sell 7,601 kilograms of gold. Shares of Antam jumped 3.8 percent to Rp 1,370 on Monday, while the main index lost 0.3 percent. The company’s shares have risen 7 percent so far this year, slowly regaining some of the 21 percent lost last year.

source : the jakarta globe