"The company recorded a 8.4 percent rise in consolidated income in the January-June period of this year compared with the same period last year," the company said in a news release here on Thursday.
Its consolidated income rose to Rp15.1 trillion with the largest contribution of Rp12.6 trillion from its cellular phone service. Its cellular phone service grew 8.5 percent in the first six months of the year.
Income from cellular data service also shot up 39.4 percent to Rp6.8 trillion contributing 54.1 percent to its cellular income.
Indosat Ooredoo said the growth could be sustained if regulation on data tariff formulation is implemented considering the change in the habit of consumers to data use from voice and short message service (SMS).
Increase in income from the cellular phone service was also growing number of cellular phone subscribers. In the first half of 2017, Indosat had 96.4 million cellular phone subscribers, or 15.9 million larger than a year earlier.
The increase in the number of subscribers was thanks mainly to support from its telecommunication networks. Indosat Ooredoo has built 5,690 additional units of Base Transceiver Station (BTS) in a year. Around 92 percent of the BTS units are 3G BTS and 4G BTS units to support fast growing data uses.
In additio9n, the corporation has launched initiatives to improve operational efficiency with significant result, it said.
The operation cost of the company rose 5.1 percent in the first half of 2017 , but the growth was still below the rise in income resulting in a 32 percent increase in operational profit year-on-year.
Indosat Ooredoo recorded a 10.5 percent in Earning Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) to Rp6.7 trillion from Rp6 trillion a year earlier.
The corporations debt in bank loan and bonds were Rp1.9 trillion less or down 8.8 percent from a year earlier.
The cut in debts resulted in a 5.8 percent decline in interest burden to be paid by the corporation .
Indosat Ooredoo is 65 percent owned by Ooredoo Asia Pte. Ltd. 14.29 percent by the Government of Indonesia, and 5.51 percent by Skagen AS .(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2017
