Publicly listed diversified conglomerate PT Astra International (ASII) is getting back on track, thanks to an automotive business that is picking up and a “last minute” recovery of commodity prices that helped improve its performance last year.

Astra, market capitalization of which at the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) ranked fourth as of Monday, booked a 5 percent increase to Rp 15.16 trillion (US$1.1 billion) in its net profit last year compared to the amount recorded in the previous year.

Its revenues, however, slightly retreated by 2 percent year-on-year (yoy) to Rp 181.08 trillion.

“The group’s consolidated net profits increased by 5 percent to Rp 15.2 trillion in 2016 in line with hikes in contributions from the automotive, heavy equipment and mining, agribusiness and infrastructure and logistics segments,” Astra International president director Prijono Sugiarto wrote in an official statement that circulated on Monday.

The automotive sector was still the main earnings driver for the group. In 2015, the firm saw its net profits nosedive by 25 percent because of tight competition and weak purchasing power that hit the automotive sector.

For the year 2016 the story was different as the company managed to contribute Rp 9.17 trillion to the group’s net profits. The 23 percent yoy contribution to growth was a result of successful sales of its new vehicle models. It introduced 14 new and nine revamped models throughout last year.

Astra’s four-wheeled vehicle sales expanded by 16 percent to about 591,000 units, versus a 5 percent increase in national car sales to 1.1 million units last year, resulting in a bigger 56 percent market share for Astra, up from 50 percent in 2015.

While it saw a 2 percent drop in its motorcycle sales to 4.4 million units, which was better than an 8 percent decrease to 5.9 million units suffered by the industry, Astra’s share increased to 74 percent, up from 69 percent in the previous year.

Meanwhile, its agribusiness group booked 224 percent growth of net profits to Rp 1.6 trillion, supported by higher crude palm oil (CPO) prices and foreign currency gains. Astra’s CPO prices climbed 11 percent to Rp 7,768 per kilogram.

The heavy equipment and mining business also booked a 30 percent increase to Rp 3 trillion in its contributions to net profits. “Most business activities in the segment were adversely effected by low coal prices almost the whole of last year, although an improvement was seen in the last quarter,” the statement read.

In contrast, the net profits of Astra’s financial sector shrunk by 78 percent to Rp 789 billion, mainly because lender PermataBank saw rising bad debts reverse its bottom line. Permata — controlled by Astra International and Standard Chartered with 44.56 percent of ownership each — announced losses of Rp 6.48 trillion in 2016 compared to net profits that amounted to Rp 247 billion in the previous year.

Permata saw its non-performing loan (NPL) ratio soar to 8.8 percent last year from only 2.7 percent in 2015, urging the lender to increase its loan-loss provision allocation to Rp 12.3 trillion.

Previously, Astra International director Gunawan Geniusahardja expressed hope that the lender would be “back to normal” this year as it had already taken proactive measures to tighten its control on risks and organizational management. The bank booked Rp 136.5 billion in profits after taxes in January, he claimed.

“Thus, after getting back to normal, we hope PermataBank will have a better synergy with Astra Group and other shareholders so that its contributions to Astra will be better too,” he said.

Yuanta Sekuritas Indonesia, in its research note, said Astra’s “strong market share gain in the auto segment would underpin an earnings turnaround after three years of sub-par growth and the earnings drag from non-auto divisions to dissipate going forward on a commodity price reversal.”

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