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ublicly listed property developer PT Bakrieland Development is currently in negotiations to sell their interest in a toll road operator to raise funds for debt payments, the company’s top executive said.

President director Ambono Janurianto said that Bakrieland Development, whose shares are traded on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) under the code ELTY, expected that the sale of PT Bakrie Toll Road would be completed by the year end.

“We are getting rid of our shares in Bakrie Toll Road and reducing our debts,” Ambono said on Tuesday evening.

ELTY’s financial report showed that the company has Rp 4.5 trillion in current liabilities and Rp 2.7 trillion in non-current liabilities as of the end of June.

According to figures from the IDX, ELTY now holds a 65.55 percent stake in Bakrie Toll Road, which was established in 2008. According to ELTY’s financial report, Bakrie Toll Road has total assets worth Rp 3.48 trillion as of the end of the first half of the year.

ELTY’s toll road business contributed only about 4 percent, or Rp 37 billion, to the company’s total revenue of Rp 962.92 billion in the first half of the year. ELTY suffered a net loss of Rp 81.16 billion in the first semester of the year.

Through Bakrie Toll Road, ELTY developed the 35 kilometer Kanci-Pejagan toll road connecting West Java and Central Java. The company holds a 35-year concession for the toll road, which started operations in January 2010.

Ambono declined to reveal investors interesting in purchasing Bakrie Toll Road. Previously reported, the company was in talks with an Asian investor.

“I cannot disclose the investor[s]. We will announce it when we have signed the CSPA [conditional sales and purchase agreement],” Ambono said.

“For sure, we won’t sell it to an affiliated company[ies] because if we sell it to affiliated companies, we won’t be able to meet the target of completing [the divestment] by the year-end,” he said.

Ambono said that his company has not determined whether to sell off only part or all of its stake in Bakrie Toll Road but stated that it would be sold off at a price at least equal to ELTY’s investment. The Kanci–Pejagan toll road was a Rp 2.2 trillion project.

ELTY’s move to sell its subsidiary is similar to those of other companies in the Bakrie Group who also sold subsidiaries to settle debts.

Publicly listed PT Bakrie & Brothers (BNBR), the investment arm of the Bakrie business empire, sold a number of shares in three subsidiaries — ELTY, PT Bakrie Sumatera Plantations and PT Energi Mega Persada — last April for a combined Rp 124.7 billion.

The transaction was a debt-to-assets settlement, according to BNBR’s submission to the bourse.

Last year, the company sold a 23.8 percent stake in London-listed Bumi Plc to PT Borneo Lumbung Energi in a deal worth Rp 1 billion. Money raised from the sale will be used to pay off BNBR’s creditor, Credit Suisse.