JAKARTA - PT Smartfren Telecom Tbk (FREN) managed to post a revenue increase of 18% to Rp 5.49 trillion and EBITDA growth of 47% to Rp 975 billion in 2018. However, the company still recorded a Rp 3.53 trillion net loss in the year.
“We can safely say that these figures are significantly above the industrial average. Thus, we believe that what we did in 2018 was appropriate for Smartfren’s progress going forward,” said Smartfren President Director Merza Fachys at a public expose at Smartfren’s headquarters in Central Jakarta, Thursday (27/6).
As of late 2018, Mr Fachys continued, Smartfren operates 19,032 BTS 4G LTE towers across 200 cities in Indonesia. This year the company targets up to 5,000 new BTS towers, particularly in major cities including in Eastern Indonesia.
To finance the development of new BTS towers, Smartfren is currently negotiating with the China Development Bank (CDB) for a loan facility of at least US$ 200 million. Smartfren Director Antony Susilo added that so far the company has absorbed capital expenditure (capex) of US$ 100 million of the total US$ 200 million budgeted. (MS)