Below is a list with tagged columns and company profiles.
Today's Headlines ISAT
The Indonesian government proposed the rupiah value at IDR 13,500 per US dollar in the 2018 State Budget (that still requires approval from the House of Representatives). This implies the government expects the rupiah to depreciate modestly in the period ahead. Currently, the rupiah is trading at IDR 13,356 per US dollar (21/08). In the Revised 2017 State Budget the rupiah value target was set at IDR 13,400 per US dollar.
Indonesia's Business Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU) has ordered telecommunication operators Indosat Ooredoo and XL Axiata to provide more details concerning the establishment of their joint venture One Indonesia Synergy. The KPPU suspects that both companies are involved in cartel practices, more specifically the companies are suspected to have breached Law No. 5/1999 on the Ban on Monopolistic Practices and Unfair Business Competition in terms of price fixing, market allocation and output restriction.
Another sign that the mobile phone market of Indonesia is saturated is that the number of (active) mobile phone numbers has only grown by 1 percent between the end of 2015 and the end of Q1-2016. Previously, we reported that the attractiveness of Indonesia's telecommunications market has been weakened due to sharp competition between operators, slowing profit margins and a saturating voice and SMS services market. However, there remains room for growth in data services and value-added services given Indonesia's still relatively low smartphone penetration (as well as low Internet penetration).
What are the important corporate news headlines from Indonesia on Wednesday 13 August 2014? Below we present our daily market roundup. This includes the following companies and topics: Saratoga Investama Sedaya, Bumi Resources, First Resources Ltd, Indosat, Intiland Development, Nusantara Infrastructure, Semen Indonesia, Apexindo Pratama Duta, Dwi Aneka Jaya Kemasindo, Sumitomo Corporation, Gilang Agung Persada, Rekayasa Industri, tin sales, and undisbursed loans.
On 29 June 2014, Indonesia Investments released the latest edition of its newsletter. This free newsletter, which is sent to our subscribers once per week, contains the most important news stories from Indonesia that have been reported on our website in the last seven days. Most of the topics involve economic topics such as business confidence, the looming middle income trap, a forecast for inflation and the trade balance, the updated company profile of Indosat, a new IPO, news surrounding the presidential election, and more.
Indonesia Investments updated the company profile of Indosat in our Indonesian Companies section. Indosat, the third-largest telecommunication operator in Indonesia with approximately 59.7 million cellular subscribers, made headlines in Indonesian newspapers after presidential candidate Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo said in a debate on Sunday (22/06) that he would like to see the Indonesian government buy back shares of the company (which had been sold to Qatar Telecom about a decade ago amid financial turmoil).
In recent years, the telecommunication sector of Indonesia has been a tough arena for mobile phone operators. In terms of voice services, the once highly prospective industry has become more and more saturated over the years. Amid fierce competition tariffs for mobile phone services have been brought down significantly, while a new group of subscribers (from the poorer segments of society) have limited spending capacity. However, with the introduction of the increasingly popular smartphone, there is still room for growth.
Indonesia Investments presents the updated company profile of Indosat, one of the largest telecommunication networks and services providers of Indonesia. The company currently has about 57 million cellular subscribers and a market share of around 20 percent. In the first half of 2013, Indosat's net loss was IDR 231.2 billion (USD $21.0 million) particularly caused by increasing telecommunication service costs, depreciation and amortization expenses, as well as labor costs.
Latest Columns ISAT
Three Indonesian telecommunication and network providers are considered to have great room for improving their corporate earnings in the second half of 2017. These companies are Telekomunikasi Indonesia, Indosat Ooredoo, and XL Axiata. Reason why these companies should experience a good performance in H2-2017 is Indonesia's "data consumption trend".
Data and Internet services are now the big engine of growth for the corporate earnings of Indonesia's listed telecommunication and network providers. However, there is only one of such companies that showed great net profit growth in the first half of 2017, to wit Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom). Therefore, Telkom is expected to have raised its market share in the mobile phone market of Indonesia this year.
The corporate performance of Indosat Ooredoo, one of the largest telecommunication networks and services providers in Indonesia, is expected to improve in the years ahead on the back of Indonesia's growing smartphone usage, rising data traffic and the company's internal improvements. At the start of 2016 Indosat Ooredoo had nearly 70 million cellular subscribers in Indonesia. The company is a subsidiary of international telecommunications company Ooredoo that is headquartered in Doha (Qatar).
Indosat Ooredoo, Indonesia's second-largest telecommunication networks and services providers, is expected to post net profit in 2016 after three straight years of net losses. Supported by its new 4G/LTE network - now available in 27 Indonesian cities (and 16 more cities are targeted to be added to this network in 2016) - the company's performance should improve. Moreover, lower US dollar-denominated debt will also contribute positively to Indosat Ooredoo's corporate earnings. At end-2015 the company had 69.7 million mobile phone subscribers.
The financial performance of Indonesia's listed telecommunication and network providers improved in 2015. Indonesia's three largest listed telecommunication companies Telekomunikasi Indonesia, XL Axiata and Indosat Ooredoo all recorded a better financial performance last year. However, this does not mean all three companies posted net profit. In fact, only Telekomunikasi Indonesia recorded net profit. The other two companies still posted a net loss, albeit their losses were much lower compared to one year earlier. Given that Indonesia's economic growth is expected to accelerate in 2016, these companies should be able to continue growing this year.
Despite sharp competition, slowing profit margins and a saturating voice and SMS services market, Indonesia’s telecommunications industry still has lucrative prospects as there is still room for growth in data services, value-added services and still relatively low smartphone penetration (as well as low Internet penetration). However, of the big three Indonesian telecommunication network and services providers - Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom), XL Axiata and Indosat - only Telkom managed to post net profit over 2014.
The performance of Indonesia’s benchmark stock index (known as Jakarta Composite Index or IHSG) was similar to the performance at the start of last week, possibly influenced by the presidential debates that took place a day prior to the past two Mondays. These debates, between the two presidential candidates (Joko Widodo and Prabowo Subianto), are broadcast live on national television and are important to outline each candidate’s vision and mission to the people. On 9 July 2014, Indonesians will vote for a new leader.
Indosat, one of Indonesia's largest telecommunication networks and services provider, has partnered with Novosol, a Singapore headquartered mobile media and advertising company. Indosat will offer Novosol's MoFutbol multimedia mobile magazine to its fifty million plus subscribers at no charge. MoFutbol is a 24x7 magazine videos, photo-stories and real time scrollers. MoFutbol is the first multimedia mobile football service in the Indonesian language. The Mandarin and Malay editions will follow soon.
Associated businesses ISAT
