Astra International Is Indonesia's Most-Admired

Indonesians want wheels, and PT Astra International has been benefiting.

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Reuters

A worker inspects a Toyota Avanza at the PT Astra Daihatsu Motor assembly plant in Jakarta in June.

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The diversified company—named the most-admired company in Indonesia in The Wall Street Journal's Asia 200 survey—has seen net earnings rise 46% in the first nine months of this year on the back of a 35% rise in revenue. That's on top of a 9% rise in profit in 2009.

In part, its bottom-line growth is being driven by Indonesia's booming demand for vehicles as the nation's economy surges.

Among other businesses, Astra is the nation's largest distributor of passenger cars and motorcycles, selling brands such as Toyota, Daihatsu and Isuzu. Indonesia's new-car sales in the first six months of this year rose 76% from the same period a year earlier, to 370,206 vehicles, according to Yulian Warman, an Astra spokesman. Astra, the nation's largest car manufacturer by sales, sold 311,000 new cars during the first nine months of the year, up 60% from the same period a year earlier.

Its strong results have continued despite the unexpected Jan. 20 death of Michael Ruslim, Astra's president-director.

Astra says it is positive about next year's outlook but also cautious about the potential effects of several factors—such as vehicle taxes, a fuel-subsidy reduction and a potential rise in interest rates—on the automotive market's growth.