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Changing gear
01 October 2008
Transurban dodged the credit crunch more deftly than most of its peers. Will its new, so far indistinct, strategy keep it safe? Catherine McGuirk reports on how the toll-road operator is weathering the financial storm.
Australian toll-road operator Transurban has interests in six toll road concessions domestically and two in the United States. Chris Lynch took over as chief executive in June 2008, and has promised to take the company in a more conservative direction, in terms of leveraging and equity distributions, though it is actively pursuing concessions, and is also focusing on greenfield projects.
Despite continued problems in the credit markets, Transurban has fared better than its closest competition in the toll roads sector in the past months (see chart below comparing Transurban's share price with that of Macquarie Infrastructure Group, Abertis and Cintra). Its stock is now trading at A$5.58 (30 Sept 2008), and has outperformed the market by around 6% year-to-date, according to UBS investment research. The operator has also recently raised almost A$1 billion ($790 million) in equity.
One of Lynch's most significant changes has been to only...
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