Bentoel Wants To Leave The Exchange To Go Private, The Performance Is Still Lacking With A Record Loss Of IDR 28 Billion

Tobacco farmer illustration. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Cigarette producer PT Bentoel Internasional Investama Tbk will return to being a private company. The issuer with the stock code RMBA has its own reasons for this action.

The profit balance which has been continuously negative since 2010 is one of the reasons for RMBA's management to go private. Meanwhile, in the first semester of 2021, the cigarette manufacturer by the name of Dunhill posted a 36.3 percent decline in sales during the first semester of 2021.

In Bentoel's financial report quoted on Thursday, September 16, the company posted sales of IDR 4.84 trillion, down from IDR 7.59 trillion compared to the same period last year.

During the first six months of 2021, the company recorded a 32.3 percent decrease in the cost of goods sold to IDR 4.38 trillion, from IDR 6.48 trillion year on year (yoy). The company's gross profit also decreased by 59.4 percent, from IDR 1.11 trillion in the first semester of 2020 to IDR 451 billion in the first semester of 2021.

Even so, Bentoel was noted to have succeeded in reducing operating income expense items by 70.7 percent to IDR 336 billion in the first semester of 2021, compared to the same period last year of 1.147 trillion.

As a result, Bentoel was able to reverse an operating loss from IDR 36 billion in the first half of last year, to an operating profit of IDR 115 billion in the first six months of this year.

However, the company still recorded a loss for the year attributable to the owners of the parent company, which decreased to IDR 28.9 billion, from IDR 165.4 billion on an annual basis.

During the first six months of 2021, the company recorded a decrease in total assets to IDR 10.6 trillion, from IDR 12.4 trillion as of December 31, 2020.

RMBA's total liabilities as of June 30 were IDR 4.94 trillion, down from IDR 6.75 trillion at the end of 2020. Meanwhile, the company's total equity was relatively fixed, at IDR 5.72 trillion in the first half of 2021, from IDR 5.7 trillion at the end of 2020.