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tate-owned telecommunications company PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (TLKM) saw a 4.5 percent rise in total revenues to Rp 61.5 trillion (US$5.52 billion) in the third quarter, supported by its cellular phone and data and Internet business.

Meanwhile, listed oil and gas company PT Medco Energi Internasional (MEDC) reported slower business in its third quarter performance as it continued to suffer from lower oil prices and production volume, as shown in its latest financial report.

Telkom announced that income from its telephone business rose slightly by 1.1 percent year-on-year to Rp 31.06 trillion from January to September. The cellular phone business '€” represented by subsidiary PT Telekomunikasi Selular (Telkomsel) '€” remained the dominant contributor to revenues, accounting for more than 76 percent, or Rp 23.66 trillion, while fixed-line made up the remaining 24 percent.

Boosted by the positive results, Telkom managed to book Rp 11.06 trillion in net profits in this year'€™s third quarter, up 10.6 percent from the same period last year.

Telkom president director Arief Yahya previously told The Jakarta Post that the company forecast a rise of at least 10 percent in both of its revenues and net profits in 2013, supported by broadband and business data expansion.

Last year, its revenues amounted to Rp 77.14 trillion and its net profits to Rp 12.85 trillion.

'€œAs regards net profits, perhaps they will grow by at least 10 percent this year and next year,'€ he said.

On Friday, Telkom'€™s shares closed at Rp 2,175, down 2.2 percent from the previous day.

Medco, in the meantime, saw its net profits falling more than half from the first nine-month period a year ago, after booking $10 million as of September this year. Medco corporate secretary Imron Gozali attributed the poor performance to the discontinuation of its downstream business, lower revenues and higher expenses.

He said the company recently decided to close down operations at its ethanol plant in Lampung. The plant began operations in 2009, but was closed due to insufficient supplies of sustainable feedstock.

'€œThat led to us booking a $20 million loss of asset impairment, which squeezed our net profits. At the same time, we have not seen an improvement in the average oil price or our production volume in some mature blocks,'€ he said on Friday.

Medco currently operates numerous oil and gas blocks both in Indonesia and overseas, including the Tarakan block in East Kalimantan, the Bawean block in East Java, the Karim field in Oman and Block 82 in Yemen. Some of its mature blocks are located in South Sumatra province, such as the Rimau block.

The company saw its revenues drop slightly by 1.1 percent to $652.23 million. The financial report shows that Medco'€™s oil and gas exploration and production (E&P) business continued to dominate revenues with 94 percent, or $615.2 million.

Meanwhile, during the first nine months, Medco posted a 7.7 percent increase to $374.78 million in its expenses.

Despite the slower results in the third quarter, Medco president director Lukman Mahfoedz said the company should be in good shape by year-end with almost the same level of earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) as last year. In 2012, Medco'€™s EBITDA stood at $341.5 million.

Its shares closed at Rp 2,450 (30 US cents) on Friday, 2 percent lower than the day before.