Panorama plans fleet expansion

JAKARTA: A unit of Panorama Group, Indonesia’s largest tour and travel operator, plans to spend Rp 115 billion (US$12.17 million) this year to acquire 320 new cars for its premium taxi brand White Horse and car rental business Europcar, and to purchase buying land to store its fleet of vehicles.

The investment is part of publicly listed PT Panorama Transportasi’s (WEHA) strategy to boost its income this year by over 117 percent to Rp 9.4 billion.

“We see a lot of potential in both the premium taxi and car rental markets, hence our focus on expanding in those divisions,” WEHA finance director Angreta Chandra told reporters during a press conference on Friday.

“We are upbeat that we will meet the target, looking at the trend for the second semester when there are lots of public holidays like Idul Fitri,” she said.

Funding will come from Bank Mandiri loans, amounting to Rp 68.4 billion, and proceeds from WEHA’s recent bonds issuance, worth Rp 150 billion, Angreta said.

To date, the company has spent Rp 35 billion to buy 105 taxis and 20 rental cars. Business was good for WEHA in 2011, when the company saw 137 percent growth in its premium taxi division and 170 percent for car rental division. On the other hand, its chartered bus division, the company’s business backbone, only grew by 8 percent.

 Chartered busses remained the largest contributor to WEHA’s revenues, although it slipped to 58 percent last year from a high of 81 percent in 2009. Premium taxis contributed 15 percent, up from 2 percent in the previous year.