Australia's lead toller Transurban reports 6% $-growth to $840m/yr, higher profits

Transurban the Melbourne Australia-based toller reports 2009 second half (H2) toll revenue of A$416m, a 6% increase on 2008H2. Based on A$=90cUS that's $840m/yr. Operating costs were reduced 3.9% to an annual $183m. Underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation & amortization (EBITDA) grew 12.4% to an annual rate of $601m.

The group had finance costs (mainly interest on debt) of an annual $450m and wrote off depreciation and amortization as $291m/yr.

Overall profit negligible in 2008H2 rose to $98m annual in 2009H2.

Melbourne CityLink the anchor

Nearly half the company's revenue comes from CityLink in its hometown Melbourne, Australia's second city. Traffic growth on this all-electronic inner area tollroad rose just 0.9% but with higher toll rates toll revenues grew 6.2% to $386m/annual. The company had capacity problems from construction work. When the 4th laning of key segments is complete both directions later this year traffic should be able to grow more strongly.

Hills M2 in the northern suburbs of Sydney is running at an annual $145m, up 12.4% on a year earlier.

Westlink M7 in the west of Sydney is running at $85m/yr, up 10%.

M5 a radial southwest of Sydney tolls about $83m/yr, up 3.7%.

M1 Eastern Distributor to Sydney airport with tolls of $63m/yr was up 4.1%

M4 the western radial due to detoll around now at concession's end (mid-Feb) was running $58m/yr.

The company's real dud Pocahnotas Parkway in Richmond VA pulled only $12m/yr, a drop of 2%.

New projects

Transurban report Capital Beltway construction on 4 toll lanes for I-495 Springfield IC to Tysons is 30% complete and an in-principle agreement on a Sydney M2 upgrade and an agreement on widening the Sydney M5 achieved.

HOT lanes on I-395/95 from the Pentagon south to Fredericksburg VA are on hold because of difficult market conditions and challenges to the project from counties along the route.

The group successfully refinanced nearly a billion-$s  of maturing non-recourse project debt on the M1 and M5 projects in Sydney. They claim to have reduced underlying operating costs during the year by about $20m/yr.

CEO quotes

CEO Chris Lynch is quoted: "Our results are testament to Transurban’s excellent suite of roads
with a strong track record of delivering traffic and revenue growth.

"We also have a clear pipeline of opportunities, with major upgrades to our assets promising to deliver future growth.

“We remain focused on maximising returns for shareholders through financial discipline, cost control, and a commitment to generating additional value.”

NOTE: all $ figures above are US$ derived from an exchange rate of 0.9xA$ numbers and we have doubled the second half numbers to give annual rates.

http://www.tollroadsnews.com/sites/default/files/$Results.pdf

TOLLROADSnews 2010-02-16