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Pos Indonesia to expand to haj cargo, hotels
State-owned postal firm PT Pos Indonesia is looking to expand its business by providing cargo services for Indonesian haj pilgrims this year and opening its own hotel chain in 2015, to boost revenues
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tate-owned postal firm PT Pos Indonesia is looking to expand its business by providing cargo services for Indonesian haj pilgrims this year and opening its own hotel chain in 2015, to boost revenues.
The company has engaged Anggito Abimanyu, the Religious Affairs Ministry's director general for the haj and umrah (minor haj), to discuss the provision of services from Saudi Arabia to Indonesia, according to Pos Indonesia president director Budi Setiawan.
'We will start offering the services this coming haj season. We anticipate around 40 tons of cargo from between 30,000 and 40,000 pilgrims,' Budi said recently.
He added that Pos Indonesia expected to finalize a partnership agreement with a Saudi firm in February to arrange the cargo's transportation.
In 2014, the haj season will take place from September to October. Indonesia is due to return to its normal quota of 211,000 haj pilgrims this year after a 20 percent reduction in 2013 to 168,000 pilgrims due to the renovation of Masjidil Haram (the grand mosque) in Mecca.
In the first year of operations, haj cargo is estimated to generate at least Rp 1.03 billion (US$ 84,738) in revenue for Pos Indonesia from charging a rate of 8 Saudi riyals ($2.13) per kilogram of cargo.
'We will then evaluate the first year's results and increase our capacity,' Budi said.
In property, Pos Indonesia is currently constructing two hotels in Bandung, West Java. This is the company's first venture in the property business.
The construction, which will cost Rp 80 billion, will take 12 months to complete. The three-star hotels are scheduled to commence operations as early as January 2015.
Funding for the construction has come from the Rp 100 billion paid-up capital within Pos Indonesia's new subsidiary, PT Pos Properti Indonesia, which will handle the property business. Besides hotels, Pos Properti also runs a building management business.
'We plan on building 10 to 20 more hotels in 2015. Based on our research, we have the potential to run up to 150 hotels across the country,' Budi added.
Meanwhile, in financial services, Pos Indonesia hopes to expand its biller service to include all of Jakarta-owned water company PDAM Jaya's channels. Right now, it only manages about 200 channels.
It is also looking to realize an agreement with state-owned lender Bank Mandiri and state pension insurance firm PT Taspen.
The three firms signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) last February to disburse microloans and pension funds through Bank Sinar Harapan Bali, a Mandiri subsidiary.
Supported by the plans, Pos Indonesia aims to reap Rp 4.7 trillion in revenues by the end of this year, a 17 percent rise from 2013.
Mail will still contribute the largest chunk to the firm's revenue, with 50 percent, followed by financial services with 40 percent and other businesses, including logistics, with the remaining 10 percent.
The company has also nearly doubled its capital expenditure to Rp 800 billion from last year to finance its business activities this year.
About Rp 200 billion of the funds will be used to expand its office network, Rp 50 billion to improve its information technology (IT) system and the remainder will be used for other purposes.
