Bumi Q4 profit beats forecasts, rivals

* Q4 net profit at $115.58 mln vs Q4 '09 loss of $169.77 mln

 * 2010 net up 63 pct to $311.18 mln, vs $270 mln consensus

 * Profits seen doubling in 2011 on lower debt cost-CLSA

Indonesia's Bumi Resources  , Asia's biggest thermal coal exporter, on Thursday

posted fourth quarter net profit of $115.58 million, a turnaround after a net loss a year earlier as sales climbed.      

Bumi's positive result stood out among other local coal miners that saw earnings plunge after heavy rainfall hurt production, including No.2 miner Adaro Energy that saw a 43 percent slide in quarterly net profit.

         

"Further upside to earnings and our forecast will come from repayment of the first tranche of CIC debt in August, which stands to save $100 million in annual interest payments," said Nick Cashmore of CLSA, in a note to clients after the result.      

Bumi, which sees coal prices and demand going up in the medium term after Japan's recent earthquake and tsunami, posted fourth quarter net profit of $115.58 million, compared with a loss of $169.77 million in the same period a year earlier, Reuters calculations based on published full-year and nine month

results showed.      

         

The jump from a year ago came after Bumi was hit in the fourth quarter 2009 by high charges for mine stripping. Investors were also concerned last year about debt levels and the risk of higher taxes, after authorities alleged Bumi and its two coal units, Kaltim Prima Coal and Arutmin Indonesia, owed about 2.1 trillion rupiah ($232 million) in tax. 

Bumi won a Supreme Court ruling in May that rejected an appeal for a continued investigation by tax authorities.

Its full year 2010 net profit was $311.18 million. That compared with a net profit of $190.45 million in the year-ago period, and analysts' forecasts for 2010 of $269.8 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S consensus

estimates.   

CLSA forecasts earnings to more than double in 2011 to $705 million.       

 Bumi, which already controls 10 percent of the global thermal coal market, aims to be China's largest supplier of coal for power plants. Indonesia is the world's largest exporter of thermal coal.

         

Bumi saw $4.37 billion in revenues last year, or a 19 percent increase versus $3.66 billion in 2009. Bumi, with a market capitalisation of $7.8 billion, is

controlled by the politically-connected Bakrie Group, which joined forces with the Rothschild banking dynasty in November for Vallar to get a 25 percent stake in Bumi. The Bakrie Group will own 43 percent in the combined London-listed company, which will be renamed Bumi Plc.       

The Bakrie family's holding investment firm Bakrie & Brothers told Reuters this week that Vallar/Bumi Plc plans to increase its stake in Bumi Resources up to 51 percent before June.

         

Bumi shares ended steady at 3,350 rupiah after the results, having gained 10.7 percent this year to outperform a little changed Jakarta index. Bumi's stock underperformed in 2010 when the index rallied 46 percent. ($1 = 8722.5 Rupiah). Source: Reuters