Indonesia's PT Indosat swung back to a 226.3 billion rupiah ($19.3 million) profit in 1H14, despite reporting a slight decline in total revenue.
The result is a near reversal of the 231.2 billion loss the operator reported in 1H13, and was achieved largely on the back of the sale of Indosat's stake in tower operator PT Tower Bersama.
Indosat arranged in March to sell its 5% stake back to Tower Bersama for up to 1.39 trillion rupiah. This sale already helped Indosat swing back to profit for the first quarter.
But Indosat's total revenue for the first six months of the year dipped 0.8% to 11.61 trillion rupiah. Cellular revenue fell 2.2% to 9.57 trillion rupiah, due to declines in voice, SMS and interconnection revenue.
Fixed data revenues by contrast grew 6.6% year-on-year, and fixed voice revenues increased by 1.1%.
PT Indosat CEO Alexander Rusli said the operator's performance during the half-year was impacted by ongoing spending on the operator's network modernization project.
But he added the company expects the investments to pay off. “Through significant network quality
improvement and best commercial strategy, we aim to remain a preferred customer’s choice for all ICT solutions,” he said.