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iant food producer PT Indofood Sukses Makmur (INDF) said on Wednesday that higher production costs had squeezed the company'€™s profit margin even though it booked a hefty rise in consolidated revenues in the first nine months of this year.

Indofood'€™s latest financial report shows that its net profits stood at Rp 1.92 trillion (US$172.22 million) between January and September, down 24.6 percent from the same period in the previous year.

The publicly listed firm, which is controlled by the Salim family, attributed the decline to lower gross profits recorded in almost all of its business divisions. '€œ[The lower gross profits] were due to higher salaries and employee benefits as well as utilities, higher raw material cost and lower average selling price [ASP] for our Agribusiness group,'€ it said in a statement.

From January to September, Indofood saw its consolidated revenues climb 10.5 percent to Rp 41.28 trillion from the previous year. However, at the same time, the total costs of goods sold grew at a faster rate than the revenues, up 15.6 percent to Rp 31.25 trillion.

Indofood'€™s consumer branded products division remained the company'€™s biggest cash cow as it contributed to Rp 18.88 trillion or 45 percent of the figure, followed by flour and pasta with 26 percent, agribusiness with 20 percent, distribution with 8 percent and Minzhong with the remaining 1 percent.

Indofood reportedly had a total of Rp 73.51 trillion in assets as of September. Its liabilities and equities amounted to Rp 34.93 trillion and Rp 38.58 trillion, respectively.

Meanwhile, the publicly listed ICBP reported that its revenues climbed 15.6 percent year-on-year to Rp 18.88 trillion, driven by increases in all of its business segments and higher ASP. The segments currently consist of instant noodles, dairy, snacks, food seasonings and nutrition and special foods.

During this year'€™s nine-month period, sale of instant noodles made up for 68 percent of the revenues. The rest of the figure was made up by dairy with 19 percent, snacks with 7 percent, food seasonings with 4 percent and nutrition and special foods with 2 percent.

In agribusiness, both LISP and SIMP announced higher sales in its crude palm oil (CPO) from January to September. LSIP'€™s sales volume climbed 2.3 percent to 327,737 tons and that of SIMP rose 1 percent to 628,000 tons.

Contacted separately, Investa Saran Mandiri analyst Kiswoyo Joe said that Indofood'€™s profits margin would still be under pressure as long as its agribusiness group continued to suffer from lower ASP. '€œICBP is the force that pulls Indofood up with strong domestic consumption, but at the same time, the agribusiness drags it down,'€ he said.

Following the nine-month results, INDF'€™s shares closed at Rp 6,950 apiece at the Indonesia Stock Exchange on Wednesday, up 4.8 percent from a day before.