Transurban half-year earnings up 7.5pct to $1.3b
Derek Rose |
Transurban’s half-year earnings have risen 7.5 per cent, with traffic growth across all markets.
The toll road operator announced on Thursday it made $1.33 billion in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation in the six months to December 31, up from $1.24 billion a year ago.
Its revenue rose six per cent to $1.78 billion as its average daily traffic increased 2.1 per cent to 2.5 million trips.
“We have had traffic growth across all the markets in which we operate,” said chief executive Michelle Jablko, who took over in October.
Transurban declared an interim distribution of 30 cents per stapled security, and said it expected to pay a full-year distribution 62 cents per security, up seven per cent from 2202/23.
RBC Capital Markets analyst Owen Birrell said the result was in line with expectations and the outlook commentary was “generally very vanilla”, although he noted that Transurban was looking at opportunities in parts of North America.
Ms Jablko told analysts on an earnings call that the company saw fast-growing Brisbane as its best opportunity in Australia.
“The Olympics are now only eight years away and there’s never been a greater need for transport infrastructure,” she said.
In Sydney, the opening of Transurban’s $3.9 billion Rozelle Interchange in November – the final piece of WestConnex – has been chaotic, with a design flaw involving merging traffic causing gridlock on nearby roads.
“There have been some well publicised challenges on nearby surface roads since the interchange opened, which is understandably frustrating for those drivers,” Ms Jablko said.
The NSW government had been modifying surface roads and Transurban had been working to support the state “in any way we can”, such as with additional signage, she said.
In answer to a question about whether Transurban might be required to “give up something” such as part of its motorway to fix the problem, Ms Jablko said it was “really hard to go into hypotheticals” but the company was working with the government to explore options.
Overall average daily traffic increased by 1.2 per cent in Sydney, by 2.3 per cent in Melbourne, by 2.6 per cent in Brisbane and by 5.3 per cent in North America.
Late Thursday morning, Transurban shares were down 0.1 per cent to $13.305.
AAP