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ublicly listed highway company PT Jasa Marga is expecting to see further business growth next year, particularly on the back of the operation of new toll roads.

Jasa Marga finance director Reynaldi Hermansjah said that his company expected to book Rp 6.5 trillion (US$675 million) in revenue from toll road operation next year, an about 20 percent increase from this year’s target of around Rp 5.4 trillion.

“We can easily achieve Rp 5.4 trillion in revenue from toll roads this year.  Next year, four new toll roads will be in operation,” Reynaldi said.

Jasa Marga reported Rp 5.59 trillion in revenue up to the third quarter of the year, of which Rp 4.08 trillion came from toll road operation and the remaining from construction and other services.

The revenue came from the operation of 13 toll roads, which saw total traffic of 870.2 million vehicles during the first nine months of the year, an approximate 10 percent increase from the same period last year. The company now operates toll roads measuring 545 kilometers in length, or about 73 percent of highway length operated in the country.

Jasa Marga is in the process of developing nine toll roads with an additional 215 kilometers by 2015.

Four of the roads, with up to 46 kilometers in length, are expected to be completed next year. The roads are Nusa Dua-Tanjung Benoa in Bali, Jakarta Outer Ring Road W2 Kebon Jeruk-Ulujami, Surabaya-Mojokerto in East Java and Semarang-Ungaran-Bawen in Central Java. For the Bali toll road, Jasa Marga is expecting to finish the project before the APEC Summit in October 2013.

Reynaldi said Jasa Marga would allocate Rp 6 trillion in capital expenditure next year, particularly to support the toll road projects.

Besides developing current projects, Jasa Marga is also seeking to acquire toll road concessions from other operators. The company is in the process of acquiring two toll road concessions, according to Reynaldi.

One of the toll roads is the Aloha-Tanjung Perak section in East Java. Reynaldi declined to reveal the
other toll road.

“We want to be a majority shareholder in every toll road we acquire. Being a majority shareholder means we will be the roads’ operator,” Reynaldi said.

Jasa Marga said last August that it had signed a deal to purchase a 21.24 percent stake in Cinere-Jagorawi toll road operator PT Translingkar Kita Jaya.

The company recently said that it was interested in taking over a 60 percent stake in Batang-Semarang and Ciawi-Sukabumi toll roads, the concession of which currently belongs to PT Bakrie Toll Road.  However, negotiations seemed to be stalled as publicly listed investment company PT Bhakti Investama, the business arm of tycoon Hary Tanoesoedibjo, announced recently that one of its subsidiaries was in talks with a third party to acquire toll roads belonging to Bakrie Toll Road, which is a subsidiary of publicly listed developer PT Bakrieland Development.

Bakrieland Development president director Ambono Janurianto has said that his company expected to finish the sale of the toll road unit before year-end.