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pmarket retailer Mitra Adiperkasa's (MAP) profit slumped in the first half, squeezed by negative currency and escalating operating costs, despite soaring revenue.

MAP has once again fallen short of booking higher first-half profit, which was down by about 31 percent to Rp 100.36 billion (US$8.67 million) this year from Rp 145.73 billion in the same period last year. Meanwhile, revenue surged 25.57 percent to Rp 5.5 trillion.

The net profit fall is steeper compared with last year, when MAP saw around a 12 percent decline in its first-half bottom line due to global economic uncertainty and flooding in Jakarta, which disrupted its business chain. MAP's corporate secretary, Fetty Kwartati, attributed the deflating profit in the first half of this year to currency depreciation and surging expenses.

'Despite uncertainties, demand for our products and brands remained strong. But our bottom line was, once again, impacted by the sluggish rupiah, higher interest and forex [foreign exchange] rates, and escalating operating costs,' Fetty said Thursday.

'Going forward, we will continue to maintain our cost discipline and drive higher operational efficiency and productivity,' she added.

MAP, which focuses its business on upper-middle class consumers, reported a 31.96 percent year-on-year increase in its six-month operation costs to Rp 2.89 trillion. Selling expenses rose 20.98 percent to Rp 1.96 trillion, while its finance costs ballooned 76.1 percent to Rp 175.28 billion.

According to MAP's first half financial report, retail and wholesale sales made up about 90 percent of the lifestyle retailer's revenue in the first half with Rp 4.96 trillion, followed by consignment sales commission with 9.1 percent.

As of June, MAP ' which has brought in a number of popular brands such as Zara, Next and Marks & Spencer ' has 1,890 stores in 61 cities. By the end of 2013, MAP operated 1,779 stores in 58 cities across the country.

As previously reported, MAP plans to slow down expansion this year, after seeing a difficult 2013, in which its full-year profit plummeted by about 24 percent to Rp 327.29 billion.

Rising rent and other expenses ' such as workers' wages and electricity costs ' coupled with currency depreciation that resulted in huge losses on foreign exchange, trimmed the company's net profit last year and will continue to so this year, despite its revenue increase being reflective of a stronger shopping appetite from consumers.

MAP expects sales growth to slow this year to between 15 and 18 percent, lower than the 28 percent sales growth it posted last year, which Fetty previously said was to provide the company with more time to focus on 'internal consolidation after seeing more than 25 percent growth annually in the last three years'.