Semen Gresik Tbk booked an increase of 20% in its revenue to over IDR3.5 trillion in the first semester of this year from the same period last year.

Semen Gresik President Director Dwi Soetjipto said that in the first six months of this year, the company posted a net profit of over IDR600bn.

"Considering our performance in the first semester of 2006, we are confident we can achieve our targeted profit of IDR1.1 trillion," he explained to Bisnis after a seminar on synergy of state enterprises.

The company’s net income in the first six months of 2005 was IDR3.27 trillion with a net profit amounted to IDR321.2bn.

Volume of cement sales in the first six months of this year was 8Mt, not much different from the sales made in the same period last year.

Contribution from domestic cement sales, he said, was lower compared to the first six months of last year due to weak demands.

But Semen Gresik managed to cover the lower sales volume from the domestic market with its sales from the export market.

Responding on Rajawali Group’s intention to become the cement producer’s shareholder, Dwi said the board of directors will invite a representative from Rajawali to discuss strategic plans such as construction of a new cement factor which will need an investment of IDR2.9 trillion.

The publicly traded company plans to seek 65% of the fund needed from its external investments and the rest of the amount will be financed by its own coffers.

Regarding the closing of the sale-and-purchase transaction of 24.9 % stake in Semen Gresik, State Enterprise Minister Sugiharto said that today the government would receive notification concerning completion of the financial issues of the transaction from Cemex.

If the deal is closed, the arbitration will be withdrawn and the conditional sale and purchase agreement will be ended no later than this Friday.