[Kabar-indonesia] Gudang Garam to pay 500 rupiah per share dividend

[Joyo at aol.com]

Indonesia's Gudang Garam to pay 500 rph/shr div

KEDIRI, Indonesia, June 24 (Reuters) - Shareholders of
Indonesia's top cigarette maker, PT Gudang Garam Tbk
approved on Saturday a final 2005 dividend payment of
500 rupiah per share, totalling 962 billion rupiah.

That dividend payment amounts to around 51 percent of
its 2005 net profit.

However, the company has expressed caution over weak
consumer purchasing power this year and the
possibility of excise tax hikes, a company director
said in Gudang Garam's base city of Kediri.

"Our projection for production this year is the same
as last year, although if possible we are eyeing for
an increase," Heru Budiman told reporters.

Gudang Garam produced 65.9 billion cigarettes last
year.

Double digit inflation in Indonesia, after the
government decided to more than double domestic fuel
prices in October to scale back its subsidy bill, had
lowered consumer purchasing power substantially in
Indonesia, and hurt Gudang Garam's sales.

Unlike its main rival PT Handaya Mandala Sampoerna Tbk
, many analysts said Gudang Garam's products, which
largely target the mass and lower income market, are
more sensitive to price changes.

This means that Gudang Garam may suffer more from the
recent slump in consumer spending than Sampoerna,
controlled since last year by Philip Morris, a unit of
Altria Group Inc. .

Indonesia is one of the world's biggest tobacco
markets and tobacco stocks are among the biggest blue
chips on the Jakarta exchange.

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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