Stalexport Autostrady Capital Group with very good results for H1 2023

The Stalexport Autostrady Capital Group ends H1 2023 with a positive result, both in terms of sales revenues and net profit.

After six months of 2023, revenues in the Stalexport Autostrady Capital Group amounted to PLN 233.5 million, which means an increase of over 24% compared to the corresponding period of the previous year. The recorded net profit is an increase from PLN 15.9 million in H1 2022 (after the transformation referred to below) to PLN 57.5 million. EBITDA totalled PLN 113.1 million.

The financial results of the Stalexport Autostrady Capital Group are a derivative of its motorway activities consisting in the management and operation of the toll section of the A4 Katowice-Kraków motorway, carried out by Stalexport Autostrada Małopolska S.A. (SAM), a subsidiary.

In H1 2023, the average daily traffic on the concession section of the A4 Katowice-Kraków motorway amounted to just over 46,000 vehicles and was 1.6% higher than the traffic recorded in the corresponding period of the previous year. In the case of passenger cars, there is an increase of 1.9%, and for trucks - 0.6%.

Revenues from toll collection in H1 2023 amounted to approx. 230.8, a 24.4% increase compared to a corresponding period of 2022.
 

The dynamics of traffic intensity on the A4 Katowice-Kraków motorway in H1 2023 was significantly lower than that recorded in H1 2022, which results from the fact that last year, due to the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, hundreds of thousands of refugees flowed into Poland along the A4 motorway. With them in mind, until 31 May 2022, there was an exemption from tolls for vehicles with Ukrainian license plates.  Vehicles or groups of vehicles reported by Polish non-governmental organisations and foreign organisations and individuals as providing aid to Ukrainian nationals are still subject to this exemption.

In 2023, changes were introduced in the way of presenting some financial data, as a result of which the data for H1 2022 were transformed, and therefore also the data for the entire year 2022. These transformations were the result of:

• changes in the approach to estimating and recognising the provision for motorway road surface renovations;
• changes in the presentation of Concession Fees in the consolidated cash flow statement;
• changes in the presentation of cash on reserve accounts in the consolidated statement of financial position and consolidated cash flow statement.

Details on changes in data presentation are included in note No. 5 of the consolidated financial statements for H1 2023.

Andrzej Kaczmarek, CEO of the Management Board of Stalexport Autostrady S.A. and Stalexport Autostrada Małopolska S.A.:

The project undertaken in 1997 by the concessionaire of the A4 Katowice-Kraków motorway, i.e. the reconstruction and adaptation of the road between the above-mentioned cities to the requirements of a toll motorway, is currently in a mature phase of development. In 2027, the motorway will be handed over to the State Treasury, but before this happens, the Capital Group companies still have a lot of tasks to complete. Pursuant to the provisions of the Concession Agreement, we are obliged to hand over the motorway in such a technical condition that will not require any financial outlays from the State Treasury for renovations or modernisations for many years after the end of the concession. We continue to invest in the protection of surface waters by modernising the motorway drainage. In September this year, we started works related to the replacement of the surface on both roadways of the 61-kilometer section of the A4 Katowice-Kraków. In order to minimise the discomfort of travelling through the renovated sections, these works are carried out with two traffic lanes in both directions. Motorway junctions and bridge structures are also being renovated.

We continue to take steps to improve the quality of service provided to motorway users by enhancing the toll collection system which will enable customers to diversify the forms of payment for using the motorway. We consistently increase the capacity of toll plazas by further developing automatic toll payment methods and adapting the traffic organisation at toll plazas to the increasing number of drivers who use them. The launch and development of these methods is enabled by constant cooperation with the companies of the Mundys Capital Group (the main shareholder of Stalexport Autostrady S.A.), which have many years of experience in the electronic toll collection industry.  In addition to the electronic toll collection using “A4Go” microwave technology launched in 2016, currently there is also video tolling on the A4 Katowice-Kraków. Toll collection based on reading vehicle license plates is available thanks to the Autopay, SkyCash, IKO PKO BP, mPay mobile applications and Orlen, Shell and DKV fleet cards. We are also working and holding discussions with other partners to further expand access to electronic payment methods.