Telkom revenue probably rose 5%-7% in 1H

JAKARTA: Indonesia's largest phone company PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia Tbks revenue in the first half probably grew between 5%-7% year-on-year, meeting its target.In the first half of last year, Telkom booked IDR32.24 trillion in revenue.The company may continue to see a revenue growth in the second half, as it will benefit from the higher frequency of calls during the many holiday seasons, Director of Finance Sudiro Asno told Bisnis.The second half is projected to be better than the first one as we will celebrate Eid ul-Fitr, Christmas and New Years so the traffic will increase.Regarding the capital expenditure realization in the first six months, Telkom has used 40%-50% of the total IDR13.73 trillion earmarked fund. The fund was used to construct fiber optic network in Aceh and Mataram-Kupang, to construct Telkomsels Base Transceiver Station and other investments.Telkomsel stake buybackTelkom is planning to study an option to give up 5% of its treasury stocks to Singapore Telecommunications Ltd (SingTel) and probably swap the stake with the 35% stake that Singtel owns in Telkom's cellular unit PT Telekomunikasi Selular (Telkomsel).The buyback scheme could be conducted either through a share swap or cash payments.To date, Telkom owns 65% of Telkomsel and SingTel owns the remainder.PT Indosurya Asser Managements Managing Research Reza Priyambada said that if parent company Telkom gives its shares to SingTel, that means the Singaporean company will still own Telkomsel.Telkomsel is majority owned by Telkom so if SingTel owns Telkoms share, it will also owns Telkomsel. (t05/msw)