Bumi posts US$280 million operating profit

By Romel S. Gurky

London listed Bumi Plc has stated that its operating profit for 2011 stood at US$280 million, up from the booked US$62 million operating profit in the first half. Its underlying earnings were recorded at US$33 million, while underlying EBITDA at $427 million.

Revenue for the group was $1.4 billion, with average Free-On-Board (FOB) selling prices stood at $81/ton during the year.

"The demand picture during the year was strong, with higher levels of Indian and Japanese sales. Cost increases were mainly due to higher fuel prices and an increase in the stripping ratio as well as due to greater haul distances from certain mines to coal processing plants," Bumi stated on its full year report.

Group cash as of December 31, 2011 was at US$608 million, in which US$30 million of dividends were received from subsidiary PT Bumi Resources Tbk and US$12 million from PT Berau in respect of 2010.

Coal mined increased by 12 percent at Berau and by 9 percent at PT Bumi with total annualized coal mined for the wider group stood at 85.4 million tons. Approximately 85 percent of group coal sales went to exports, with the remaining 15 percent went to domestic market.

Bumi is embarking on a major expansion of production at its existing mines in Berau and its associate PT Bumi. Capital expenditure for 2012 is expected to be US$260 million for Berau and US$360 million for PT Bumi's coal operations.

Berau is expected to increase its production from 19.4 million tons in 2011 -12 percent increase from 2010- to 23 million tons in 2012, while PT Bumi is expected to raise the production of subsidiary Kaltim Prima Coal from 41.0 million tons in 2011 to 45 million tons in 2012 and Arutmin from 24.7 million tons of coal in 2011 to 30 million tons in 2012.

Editing by Er Audy Zandri