TRANSURBAN BOSS BOWS OUT ON TOP
LABOUR and materials shortages are the greatest risks to Australia’s capacity to deliver its $647bn infrastructure pipeline, according to outgoing Transurban boss Scott Charlton.
Mr Charlton announced his departure from the toll roads giant on Tuesday after close to 11 years as chief executive, and as the company pushes ahead with its own pipeline of road projects.
He said he would spend time considering new opportunities in the corporate world before finishing up at Transurban at the end of the year.
Speaking after handing down the company’s firsthalf results, Mr Charlton said Australia was well placed to weather the economic storm and avoid a recession. “I think the biggest risk for major infrastructure projects is the skill set to deliver that pipeline and having enough materials, because for almost everything we do we need to import steel from overseas, import a lot of other materials,” he said.
On Tuesday Transurban handed down its strongest revenue growth on record for the six months to December, on the back of rebounding traffic numbers and inflationlinked price rises.
Proportional earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), which reflects the company’s ownership interest in its toll roads, increased 53.7 per cent from the same time last year to a record $1.24bn, off a 42.6 per cent increase in proportional revenue to a record $1.66bn.
The company will pay an interim dividend of 26.5c, and lifted its full-year payout guidance to 57c, up from an earlier estimate of 53c.
Average daily traffic figures exceeded 2.5 million trips for the first time in November across its Australian road network, with record volumes reported in the first half across Sydney and Brisbane. Transurban shares fell 8c to $13.95.