On Sunday 22 December 2013, Indonesia Investments released its latest newsletter. This free newsletter, which is sent to our subscribers once per week, contains the most important news stories from Indonesia that have been reported on during the last seven days on our website. Most of the topics involve economic matters such as a forecast of the performance of the Jakarta Composite Index, the government's fuel subsidy spending, crude palm oil exports, the initial public listing of Sido Muncul Herbal, and more.

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The preliminary company profile of Ramayana Lestari Sentosa (RALS) has been added to our catalogue of Indonesian company profiles. Ramayana Lestari Sentosa is an Indonesian retail company which sells a variety of products, including household necessities, fashion apparels, toys and stationeries. Today, Ramayana Lestari Sentosa owns department stores in 42 major cities in Indonesia, employing over 17,867 people. The company profile also includes a future projection of the company's financial performance.

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Amid changing shopping habits of the Indonesian consumer, department store Ramayana Lestari Sentosa continues to transform its business and to adjust it to the modern retail reality. In August 2017 Ramayana Lestari Sentosa announced to close eight stores (in Surabaya, Banjarmasin, Bulukumba, Bogor, Pontianak and Sabang), hence triggering concerns that the company is in financial trouble.

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Ramayana Lestari Sentosa, one of Indonesia's biggest department stores, is expected to see improving corporate earnings in the years ahead. In the first nine months of 2016 the company's sales reached IDR 6.4 trillion (approx. USD $492 million), or about 77 percent of the full-year sales target that was set by Danareksa Sekuritas (IDR 8.07 trillion). This strong performance is primarily supported by same-store sales growth in Jakarta (+8.7 percent y/y), Java (+7.3 percent), and outside Java (+4.1 percent).

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Indonesian retail businesses are optimistic that their performance will improve in 2016 on the back of rising purchasing power amid the government's decision to cut energy tariffs (fuel and electricity) and its plan to raise non-taxable income by 50 percent. These moves mean that Indonesian consumers (particularly in the lower middle class segment) should have more money to spend. Tutum Rahanta, Deputy Chairman of the Indonesian Retailers Association (Aprindo), says retail business can grow by 12 - 15 percent (y/y) in 2016, considerably higher than the 7 - 8 percent (y/y) growth pace realized last year.

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