Toll road operator, Transurban (ASX:TCL), is looking to boost its 2024-25 distribution to 65 cents per security from 62 cents for the year just ended.
The 4.8% improvement will be above the expected rate of inflation but lower than the near 7% (and inflation-beating) rise in 2022-23.
The company told the ASX on Thursday that the year “produced strong results across the business” and saw “traffic grow in every market, with approximately 2.5 million average daily trips, up 1.7% on the prior year.”
Proportional toll road revenue rose 6.7% to A$3.535 billion, and proportional EBITDA was up 7.5% at A$2.631 billion.
Transurban said it saw a small rise in its average weighted cost of capital to 4.8% but kept cost increases to slightly less than inflation at 3.6%. This was well below the 4% to 6% guidance for costs.
“Our strong balance sheet offers us the support and flexibility we need to take advantage of future growth opportunities,” the company said in its ASX release.
“Underpinning these results is the value that our 10.8 million customers experience when choosing our roads, and this year has seen us provide even more value for drivers on and off the road.
“Time savings continue to be the key reason people choose our roads, with customers collectively saving over 446,000 hours in travel time every workday” (here and in the US where it operates toll roads around Washington DC and in nearby Virginia), Transurban added.