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ublicly listed state-owned toll road operator PT Jasa Marga says it wants to buy a stake in PT Bakrie Toll Road.

The firm was particularly interested in buying 60 percent stakes in the Batang-Semarang and Ciawi-Sukabumi toll roads, whose development has been hindered due to lack of investment, president director Adityawarman said.

“Jasa Marga should be the majority stakeholder because our mission is to connect one place to another in Indonesia to help boost the economy,” Adityawarman told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Adityawarman said that Jasa Marga and Bakrie Toll Road have been in informal discussions on the sales.

Bakrie’s proposed 75-kilometer-long Batang-Semarang toll road section in Central Java is of interest to Jasa Marga, which is currently working on a toll road connecting Semarang and Surakarta in the province.

Separately, the Public Works Ministry’s Bina Marga (highways) director general, Djoko Murjanto, said that a lack of financing has left all of Bakrie Toll Road’s projects in Java in limbo for almost a year.

The projects comprise toll roads between Pejagan and Pemalang, Batang and Semarang, Ciawi and Sukabumi, and Pasuruan and Probolinggo.

“We hope that investors can get loans immediately, because these are important projects to connect Java, where 50 percent of the economic activities of the country takes place,” Djoko told the Post recently.

Bakrie Toll Road was responsible for the four of 24 toll road projects in Java that have not shown significant progress, Djoko said.

In addition, according to Bina Marga director Herry Marzuki, only 3.34 percent of the land needed for the Batang-Semarang has been acquired.

Publicly listed property developer PT Bakrieland Development (ELTY) said in September that it was in negotiations to sell its interest in the toll road operator to raise funds for debt payments.

President director Ambono Janurianto previously said that Bakrieland Development expected that the sale of Bakrie Toll Road would be complete by the year end.

Ambono could not be reached for comment on Monday.

ELTY’s financial report showed that the company had Rp 4.5 trillion (US$467.7 million) in current liabilities and Rp 2.7 trillion in non-current liabilities as of the end of June.

Its toll road business contributed only about 4 percent, or Rp 37 billion, to total revenues of Rp 962.92 billion in the first half of the year, when ELTY suffered a net loss of Rp 81.16 billion.

Through Bakrie Toll Road, ELTY developed the 35-kilometer Kanci-Pejagan toll road connecting West and Central Java.

The company holds a 35-year concession for the toll road, which started operation in January 2010.