Profits speed ahead at e-flow operator to €2.62m
PRE-TAX profits at the consortium that operates the e-flow toll on Dublin’s M50 increased by 26pc to €2.625m in 2016, new figures show.
According to accounts just filed with the Companies Office by Emovis Operations Ireland Ltd, the firm recorded the increase in pre-tax profit in spite of revenues decreasing by 2.5pc – going from €23.6m to €23m.
According to the 2016 annual report by Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), the total revenues generated from the M50 eflow toll increased from €111.24m to €118.38m.
TII state that during 2016 there were 400,000 unique journeys every weekday on the M50.
Emovis – a subsidiary of Spain’s Abertis Group – last year lost out in securing an extension to the TII contract to operate the e-flow toll for a further term. It is involved in a legal challenge against the award of the contract, which is valued at between €200m to €400m.
The legal action is referred to in the Emovis directors’ report. The directors state that “there are two ongoing legal challenges to this decision. Regardless of the outcome of these legal challenges, our contract has been extended until at least March 2019”.
Along with Emovis, TransCore LP, a subsidiary of the New York Stock Exchange-listed Roper Technologies is also challenging the TII award.
Both companies are seeking to have the decision to award the winning bid to the Turas consortium set aside.
The legal actions comes against the background of ever-increasing volumes of traffic on the route, making the operation of e-flow even more lucrative.
According to TII figures for 2017, the M50 is the most heavily-trafficked road in the country. In excess of 140,000 vehicles use several sections on an average day. Traffic volumes reached record levels last year, with figures showing that on one day, 170,711 cars were recorded between the N2 and N3 exits on August 25 last.
The company in 2016 paid a dividend of €3.75m. According to the directors’ report, they anticipated that in the early years of trading they would show initial losses as a result of significant start-up costs associated with the introduction of the radical free-flow tolling system and they remain confident that future periods until March 2019 will remain profitable.
Numbers employed by Emovis in 2016 decreased from 80 to 77, with staff costs going up from €3.63m to €3.786. The company’s after-tax profits totalled €2.297m after paying tax of €328,232.