Indofood reported net profit of Rp 3.24 trillion (US$248.32 million) in the January to September period, an increase of almost double compared to the same period in 2015.

In a statement published on Friday, the company attributed the performance to a net margin that improved to 6.5 percent from 3.5 percent.

“Without taking into account non-recurring items and differences in foreign exchange rate, core profit, which reflects the underlying performance, increased 15.3 percent to Rp 3.12 trillion from Rp 2.71 trillion in the same period last year,” Indofood Sukses Makmur president director and CEO Anthoni Salim said.

Its financial report shows that it reaped Rp 904.35 billion in financial income, including from foreign exchange gain, which rose by nearly twofold in the first nine months.

The rupiah appreciated against the US dollar by more than 5 percent from January to September, as opposed to 17 percent depreciation in the same period in 2015, as revealed by data from Bloomberg.

Indofood’s overall revenues — contributed by its four business divisions — climbed 4.8 percent year-on-year (yoy) to Rp 49.86 trillion. The growth rate slightly improved when compared to the 1.4 percent rate it recorded a year ago.

Anthoni said the company’s performance had continued to improve, as reflected in its core profit. “CBP [consumer branded products] and Bogasari Group continued to report positive performance, while Agribusiness Group was undermined by lower CPO [crude palm oil] production due to El Niño,” he added.

The publicly listed ICBP, which is Indofood’s arm in consumer branded products, saw its sales surge by almost 10 percent yoy to Rp 26.47 trillion, making up for more than half of Indofood’s revenues.

ICBP enjoyed higher volume growth in nearly all its business lines, such as instant noodles, dairy, snacks, food seasonings, and nutrition and special foods. Beverages was the only business to post a slight sales decline.

Instant noodles remained the largest contributor to ICBP’s sales with more than 65 percent. They have continued to cement ICBP’s reputation as the largest instant noodle producer in the world, even though their sales only increased 7.8 percent on an annual basis.

ICBP’s own financial report reveals that dairy was the business line that recorded the highest growth as its sales were up 20 percent yoy in the January to September period.

Meanwhile, Indofood’s Bogasari division — which mainly deals in flour — reported a slight 2.3 percent increase in sales in the first nine months.

In agribusiness, Indofood saw its sales rise by 2 percent. It operates several plantation companies in palm oil, sugarcane and rubber, with two publicly listed firms Salim Ivomas Pratama (SIMP) and Perusahaan Perkebunan London Sumatra Indonesia (LSIP).

According to LSIP’s operational report, its crude palm oil production fell by more than 26 percent on an annual basis to 345,460 tons, impacted by the El Niño phenomenon that occurred last year. The volume of its palm kernel and rubber productions dropped as well by double-digit from 2015.

Following the issuance of the nine-month financial reports, the companies’ share prices fell on Friday. Indofood’s shares were down 1.1 percent, those of ICBP fell 0.5 percent, while LSIP’s shares dropped 1.9 percent. SIMP’s shares, on the other hand, stayed flat.

Koneksi Kapital research head Alfred Nainggolan said ICBP’s product sales were more “elastic”, similar to rice, and would not be significantly impacted by price increase and lower income.

First Asia Capital analyst David Sutyanto said he believed ICBP would see higher sales in the fourth quarter, thanks to the holiday season.

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