JAKARTA. Santosa, President Director of PT Astra Agro Lestari Tbk (AALI) was awarded the Best CEO in Agriculture (Plantation and Crops) by Tempo.co and IDNFinancials.com. The awarding night took place at the Sofitel Hotel, Nusa Dua Resort, Bali last weekend.

Santosa received this award because he succeeded in bringing the company to continued growth thanks to the implementation of digitalization strategies in the business process sector. Even though Santosa admitted that the system cannot completely replace physical control, it at least helps smooth decision making due to the use of data.

Apart from that, AALI's sustainable performance growth is utilizing assets and maintaining the assets it owns through replanting so that factory utilization is maintained. AALI also created a partnership team as a more aggressive anticipatory move in approaching the community. With medium PKS factory partners, they can jointly penetrate the export market, as was done by carrying out a joint venture with partners in Singapore, to penetrate the Chinese, Indian and Korean markets.

When the Government issued a policy banning the export of cooking oil, and many companies were no longer able to operate, Santosa had to strategize how the tank stock would not be full and companies would not stop buying palm fruit from the community.

With these various strategies, the Company's performance throughout the last five years has tended to be stable. In 2019, for example, before the pandemic crisis occurred, AALI managed to record revenue of IDR 17.45 trillion with a net profit of IDR 211.12 billion. When the pandemic occurred, AALI's performance actually strengthened with revenue reaching IDR 18.81 trillion and net profit soaring to IDR 833.01 billion. Revenue continued to grow, reaching IDR 24.32 trillion with a net profit of IDR 1.97 trillion. Even though in 2022 revenue declined to IDR 21.83 trillion, net profit remained at IDR 1.73 trillion. In the third quarter of 2023, AALI's revenue was recorded at IDR 15.68 trillion with a net profit of IDR 800.5 billion

With this continuous performance growth, AALI's share price is also stable at the exchange rate of IDR 7,125 at the opening bell on December 5, 2023. With today's market capitalization value of IDR 13.71 trillion, AALI is ranked 2nd out of 53 stocks in the plantation sector or ranked 106th out of 902 public companies.

AALI also applies the concept of sustainability for the Company. Even though it is nothing new for AALI, because it has been implemented since 1990, Santosa continues to improve the sustainability concept in a measurable manner and refers to international standards. AALI's sustainability concept is also in line with the 3P strategy in the Astra Group, namely Portfolio, People and Public Contribution.

Based on the company's performance and strategy, Santosa was considered successful in developing the company and received an award as The Best CEO in Agriculture (Plantation and Crops) from Tempo.co and IDNFinancials.com. TOP CEO INDONESIA 2023 is a prestigious award for CEOs of Public Companies (Tbk) for their achievements and success in leading the company in financial aspects and impact on the environment (social impact).

This appreciation is given through a number of stages of data collection and research, including financial and company sustainability reports, as well as face-to-face or virtual interviews with CEOs.

The awarding was also accompanied by a talk show with the theme: Towards a Golden Indonesia 2045, and presenting as speakers 4 CEOs from large and well-known companies, namely President Director of PT Garuda Indonesia Tbk Irfan Setiaputra; President Director of PT Industri Jamu dan Farmasi Sido Muncul Tbk David Hidayat; President Director of PT Indocement Tunggal Prakarsa Tbk Christian Kartawijaya and President Director of PT Aneka Tambang Tbk Nicolas D Kanter. (AM/LM)