Indonesia’s Gudang Garam Sees No Financial Boost From Dhoho Airport

September 13, 2026, 07.24 PM

ILUSTRASI. Indonesia’s GGRM admits its IDR 14.5T Dhoho Airport investment yields no positive returns. Read why management expects a multi-year drag. (KONTAN/Benediktus Krisna)

Reporter: Rashif Usman | Editor: Hasbi Maulana

GUDANG GARAM TBK - JAKARTA — Indonesian tobacco manufacturing giant PT Gudang Garam Tbk (GGRM) has publicly admitted that its heavily monitored diversification into private mega-infrastructure has yet to yield any positive contribution to the company’s bottom line.
Speaking at a public earnings presentation, Gudang Garam Director Istata Taswin Siddharta emphasized that the newly constructed Dhoho Airport in Kediri, East Java, is structurally anchored as a long-term capital play. Consequently, the commercial aviation hub's impact on GGRM's overarching corporate performance remains financially insignificant.

Capital Injection and the Long Flight to Profitability

"This airport is a long-term project. Up until now, it has not provided a positive contribution to the company. We expect this financial drag to persist for the next several years," Istata disclosed.

While management refrained from pinpointing the operational bottlenecks hindering the asset's underperformance, the announcement underscores the strategic execution risks corporations face when stepping outside their core competencies.

Despite the lack of immediate revenue generation, the consumer-staple giant remains deeply committed to shielding the infrastructure project from a liquidity crunch. GGRM recently executed another IDR 200 billion cash injection to bankroll Dhoho Airport’s daily operations. The transaction was funneled through its domestic subsidiary, PT Surya Dhoho Investama (SDHI), in which Gudang Garam commands a near-absolute 99.9% equity stake.

Evaluating the Scale of GGRM's Diversification Strategy

To prevent operational drawdowns, this latest cash top-up expanded SDHI’s total paid-up and issued institutional capital by 1.39%, climbing from an already massive IDR 14.3 trillion base to settle at IDR 14.5 trillion.

For global equity analysts and regional fund managers evaluating emerging market corporate governance, GGRM’s current trajectory offers a stark outlook. Management verified it currently has no appetite for fresh investment vectors beyond the completion of Dhoho Airport and its interconnected regional toll-way projects.

While the conglomerate’s core tobacco operations traditionally generate robust cash flows, international observers are closely monitoring whether this massive capital tie-up in regional infrastructure will permanently dilute shareholder returns over the current multi-year holding horizon.