Astra Infra currently operates a number of toll roads and sea ports on Java and Kalimantan, but the firm is eyeing more projects in both sectors, Astra Infra business development director Rahmat Samulo said.

Rahmat highlighted the firm’s particular ambition to become part of the operator consortium of the future Patimban deep-sea port in Subang, West Java, which is slated for ground-breaking early next year and will start operating partially in 2019.

“Patimban will become quite a strategic port in the future. It is situated in Subang, which is close to many of the manufacturing sites belonging to Astra [International] Group’s subsidiaries,” Rahmat said recently.

The Patimban port will become Astra Infra’s second sea port in the company’s business portfolio, should it manage to gain partial control of it, following Eastkal Port in East Kalimantan, which serves many clients in the oil and gas sector.

“Astra Infra is currently looking out for partners we can cooperate with [to form an operator consortium]. Hopefully we will find the right partners,” he said, adding that the Patimban port was extremely strategic as Astra Infra had shares in several automotive factories in the region in which it is located.

Moreover, according to Rahmat, Astra Infra could gain an operating slice within the government’s 51 percent share of Patimban port. The remaining 49 percent will be subject to the Japanese government, whose loan covers more than 80 percent of the costs of the project’s first phase of construction.

The company is also on track to reach its target of operating at least 500 kilometers of toll road by 2020. Currently, Astra Infra owns 352.6 km of toll roads spread over six sections across Java, some of which are from companies Astra Infra has acquired.

For example, the company completed in May a 45 percent acquisition of the Cikopo-Palimanan toll road in West Java, the company’s longest toll road section to date at 116 km in length.

Even so, Astra Infra spokesperson Danik Irawati declined to reveal which toll road projects the company was after to meet its target.

However, she hinted that the company had been intensely communicating with state-owned construction firm Waskita Karya, which reportedly wants to sell 10 of its toll roads in the near future.

“We are not going to specify which toll roads [Astra Infra] wants to buy, but we have been communicating with the owners and we know they are going to put those projects up for sale,” Danik said, while also refusing to reveal the expenditure it plans to allocate for the acquisition.

Toll roads make up around 90 percent of Astra Infra’s revenue.

Astra Infra has also lined up a plan to be involved in the development or operation of the government’s future airports, Rahmat said, but would not specify which projects it was interested in.

“Nevertheless we think that airports are a vital aspect in developing a country, yet not many private firms have been involved in their operation here,” he said.

The firm has emphasized that it will prioritize the acquisition of infrastructure projects within Java before advancing to other regions.

“This is not because we have no interest in [infrastructure] projects outside of Java, but it is because we have been studying them and concluded that we will put projects in Java first,” Rahmat said.

He added that Astra Infra might look for a special economic zone (KEK) to develop as part of its business outside Java in the future.

In the first half of the year, Astra International’s infrastructure and logistics businesses contributed 21 percent, or Rp 110 billion (US$8.12 million) of its total profits, lower than the Rp 139 billion they contributed in the same period last year.

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