Medco buys back 10.668 million shares

PT Medco Energy International Tbk (MEDC) has bought back 10.688 million of its shares worth a maximum of US$80 million, says a company spokesperson.

"The transaction was completed through executive broker PT Kresna Graha Sekurindo," said corporate secretary Cisca Alimin on Friday.

She said the shares were traded at an average of Rp 4,518 (0.5 U.S. cents) per share. The shares bought back numbered 14.847 million or 0.45 percent of the total shares registered at the
Indonesian Stock Exchange (BEI).

Medco spent $7.371 million buying back the shares, and still had $72.628 million in funds to buy back more.

Alimin said that in an extraordinary shareholders' meeting last June 5, it was agreed that the company would buy back a maximum of 109.637 million shares with a maximum value of $80 million at a maximum price of Rp 9,000 per share. The deadline of the buyback was November 15, 2009.

On Friday, the company also announced that its net profit in the first semester of 2008 jumped more than two-fold to $63.42 million from $27.64 million in the first semester of 2007.

Medco's mid-year financial report showed that the company posted a net profit of $63.42 million on the back of a significant increase in sales.

According to Medco, its sales during this year's first semester increased by 75 percent to $709.13 million from $403.36 million in the same period in 2007 thanks to a 70.1-percent surge in its sales to $446.27 million.

Its other revenues were from drilling and other related services, and the sale of chemical and other fuel products.

Meanwhile, Medco's business profit rose to $186.87 million in the first semester of 2008, from $128.79 million a year before.