Shareholders in tollroad group, Transurban (TCL) should be happy after the company yesterday forecast a ”double digit” growth in dividends for 2016-17 after the tollroad group returned to a topline profit after the huge write downs of some Brisbane tollroad assets in 2014-15.
The house cleaning episode last financial year saw the group report a loss of $373 million a year earlier. That was replaced with a $22 million profit this year.
But on a proportional Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortisation (EBTIDA), which measure earnings relative to Transurban’s ownership stakes in its toll road assets and overseas, rose nearly 15% to $1.48 billion, excluding significant items. That was on an 18.8% jump in revenue to $2.21 billion, while proportional toll revenue rose 17.5% to $1.95 billion.
Transurban, which owns and operates 15 toll roads in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and the US, said it expected to pay a dividend of 50.5 cents for each security in 2016-17, in line with analysts’ expectations, an 11% increase on 2015-16’s full year dividend of 45.5 cents a security.
That will be on top of the higher final payout for the 2015-16 financial of 23 cents, compared with a final dividend of 20.5 cents for 204-15.
Transurban chief executive Scott Charlton said the company had $9 billion of development projects underway, including Melbourne’s $5.5 billion Western Distributor Project, and Sydney’s new $3 billion NorthConnex toll road.
In the US, Transurban is bidding to expand Virginia’s Interstate 66 in partnership with Skanska, with a preferred bidder expected to be announced by the end of the year, and is actively looking for another US toll road to add to its current Virginia networks, the 495 Express Lanes and 95 Express Lanes.
Mr Charlton said "technology initiatives" would increasingly form part of the Transurban’s investments.”Beyond our current pipeline, we are working on the next generation of potential projects,” Mr Charlton said yesterday.
“We continue to see opportunities across our markets to bring our expertise in network planning, forecasting, community engagement, development, technology, operations and customer management,” Mr Charlton said.
The company operates the majority of toll roads in Australia, with the greatest concentration of assets in Sydney and Brisbane.
Transurban securities dipped 1.4% to $11.90.
