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T Bumi Serpong Damai (BSD), one of the country'€™s largest property developers, booked Rp 1.76 trillion (US$154 million) in marketing sales in the first quarter of this year, down by more than 30 percent compared to the same period in 2013.

According to BSD'€™s written statement, the company'€™s marketing sales in the first three months of this year was lower by about 32 percent compared to the first quarter of last year, when the company booked Rp 2.6 trillion.

BSD corporate secretary Hermawan Wijaya said the company was upbeat about securing its marketing sales target.

By reaping Rp 1.76 trillion in the first quarter of this year, he said the company had booked 29.3 percent of this year'€™s total marketing sales target of Rp 6 trillion, or 11 percent up compared to last year figure.

Hermawan added that the decline was only natural considering there was boost in inorganic marketing sales from the company'€™s joint ventures with other firms.

'€œWe had a significant addition in inorganic marketing sales from joint ventures with our strategic partners: Hongkong Land, Aeon Mall from Japan and Dyandra,'€ Hermawan explained.

Driven by the joint ventures, the company saw its marketing sales triple during the first quarter of last year, compared to Rp 828.4 billion during the same period in 2012.

'€œHead to head with last year'€™s organic marketing sales, we booked about a 98 percent year-on-year [y-o-y] increase in the first quarter.'€

According to the statement, 64.77 percent or Rp 1.14 trillion of the first-quarter marketing sales figure came from land plot sales.

Moreover, the housing complexes of BSD City in South Tangerang, Banten, contributed 71 percent to the total figure, followed by Balikpapan Grand City in East Kalimantan with 15 percent and Grand Wisata Bekasi with 8 percent.

The company saw its sales of residential units grow by about 15 percent to Rp 595.35 billion in the first quarter of this year, compared to Rp 516 billion during the same period last year. The developer sold about 398 residential units from January to March.

The company reaped Rp 2.75 trillion from issuing bonds late last year, most of which would be used to develop its flagship project '€” BSD City. The housing complexes occupy 6,000 hectares, with about 2,000 hectares of land bank to be developed until 2020.

BSD, as previously reported, reaped Rp 5.4 trillion as opposed to its initial target of Rp 5 trillion '€” excluding the roughly Rp 1.9 trillion one-time marketing sales it scored through joint ventures with Aeon Mall and Hongkong Land.

Of BSD'€™s total Rp 5.4 trillion in market sales last year, 72 percent or Rp 3.87 trillion was contributed by residential units, while the remaining Rp 1.53 trillion came from commercial units.

BSD doubled its annual profits to Rp 2.9 trillion last year given rising sales, compared to the Rp 1.48 trillion it pocketed the previous year.

BSD, a subsidiary of PT Sinar Mas Land, a unit under the conglomerate Sinar Mas Group, recorded a 53.89 percent y-o-y increase in its revenue to Rp 5.74 trillion last year.

'€” JP/ Anggi M. Lubis