Transurban Group

I would now like to hand the conference over to Craig Stafford, General Manager, Strategy and Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for Transurban's 2026 full-year results briefing. Transurban acknowledges the traditional owners of the lands throughout Australia, and we pay respect to Elders past and present. We acknowledge our roads and infrastructure are built on country. and with deep respect we incorporate the voices of First Nations people in our approach supporting access to mobility across communities. We're joined today by our CEO Michelle Jabco and CFO Henry Byrne and together they'll take you through the presentation that we lodged with the ASX this morning. We realise it's a busy day today. The presentation should take around 20 minutes and then we'll have plenty of time for Q&A. I'll now hand over to Michelle to get us started.

Thanks Craig and good morning to everyone on the call. Let's start with the outcomes we've delivered this year. We adapted quickly to the shifting environment. You've seen in our monthly updates since April that traffic faced some headwinds from broader macro conditions and geopolitical impacts on fuel. Despite that, our roads show good resilience, especially commercial traffic. Importantly, we didn't sit back and wait for conditions to improve. We leant in and controlled what we could control, driving better cost performance, strengthening margins and growing distributions in line with guidance by 6.2%, 98% covered by free cash. And we're continuing to strike the right balance by finding smarter, more efficient ways to run the business and grow distribution sustainably. And most importantly, invest in our customers and longer-term growth prospects. This has given us the confidence to announce FY27 distribution guidance of 72 cents per security, which I'll comment more on later. Let's move on to traffic. Assets are holding up relatively well, with overall traffic growing 2.2% to 2.6 million daily trips, and commercial traffic grew by 6.6%, notwithstanding concerns around fuel security in March and April. And as you'll see in today's numbers, we've seen a broader improvement in June and July. Looking briefly at traffic across our markets, in Sydney, construction impacts are abating and we expect this to continue to improve as other new roads open over the next couple of years. In Melbourne, freight traffic grew 3.9% on CityLink, supported by an almost 5% increase in port container movements. And in Brisbane, strong economic activity is showing up on our roads, with freight growing 4.9% in line with container growth. North America continued to outperform this year, with traffic up 3.5% and revenue up 14%, driven by the clear value customers see in our express lanes. Let me now shift to our performance against our strategic priorities. We've achieved a lot this year. If we look back only a few years, we were facing into a number of challenges. You were concerned about New South Wales toll reform, that it could end in dispute, destroy value and stall any growth in our existing assets. We had a cost base that was too high and rising interest rates meant both customers and investors were demanding more from us. So we did what we said we were going to do. It started with a fundamental shift, taking a customer first approach. The outcomes on New South Wales toll reform are the best example of that in action. Alongside this, we delivered three major projects, connecting new people and places, and adding over 144 lane kilometres of new roads for our customers. We had to be patient. We deliberately took time to reset our relationships. Now we have new growth opportunities emerging, and there is still significant value to unlock from our existing assets and the nearly 12 million customers we serve. In the meantime, we got to work delivering as much value as possible from the business we have today. We improved our dynamic pricing in the US in line with customer value, which drove a double digit step change in earnings and a 26% increase in free cash flow. And we demonstrated strong cost discipline for the third consecutive year. There's more opportunity and more to do on all these fronts, but our approach is creating a new blueprint for the future. I want to touch briefly on toll reform because it was a significant milestone. We supported the New South Wales Government to reach a solution that is a genuine win for motorists, a win for the state and is enabling a proposed new road widening, all while protecting the value of your investment. The proposed solution includes a range of measures that deliver meaningful cost of living relief for drivers, especially those in Western Sydney. And some of these improvements are already in place, like switching off late fees and moving to digital toll notices. We've demonstrated we can work constructively with governments to improve customer outcomes. And that's the broader lesson from toll reform. When industry and government work together with a shared focus on customers and where contracts are respected, we can deliver better outcomes for all parties. What you're seeing now are two big cultural shifts inside Transurban, and both of these are right for the times. The first is putting the customer at the heart of our strategy for long-term growth. The second is reallocating our capital and our efforts from within to invest where it matters, towards our customers' digital innovation and further efficiency. We're putting our effort where it will deliver the most value. We're investing on the road for safer journeys, and we're being deliberate about where we invest in technology like AI. For example, our AI-driven chatbot now handles the majority of chat queries. Customer satisfaction is four and a half out of five, and it's reduced escalations to our team by more than 60%. And our rewards program is going from strength to strength, with more than 2 million members, growing at a rate of 50 new members an hour. It's delivering real value, like our 26 cents per litre fuel offer for regular travellers. At the same time, we're driving productivity across the business and seeing more and more opportunity to do so, continuing to free up capital to reinvest in our customers and support distribution growth. We've delivered three major projects this year, saving drivers an additional 40,000 hours every workday. The Northern Extension project on the 495 is delivering faster, more reliable journeys in Greater Washington. And in Australia, the M7-M12 integration project is already making it easier for freight heading to the new Western Sydney Airport. Customers have taken to the M7 and the 495 quickly, with traffic up 11% and 22% respectively for July compared to the prior year. In Melbourne, truck volumes on the Westgate Tunnel are responding to the strong value proposition, and importantly, there are 90% fewer trucks on local streets. As we've mentioned before, the ramp-up profile of the Westgate Tunnel has remained flat since February, but the fundamentals remain solid, with population growth in Melbourne's west well-placed to support the project over the longer term. And ultimately, these three projects will continue to deliver for decades. Some of our strongest growth opportunities sit within our existing portfolio. That's things like capacity enhancements, which help relieve congestion pinch points. We're able to identify opportunities to create more value for customers and communities. For example, with around 120 lane miles, our proposed bi-directional project will more than double the existing capacity of the 95 express lanes, allowing us to address congestion on one of the country's busiest corridors. So along with the active discussions we're having about projects in Brisbane and Sydney, we have a very tangible pipeline of growth ahead. I acknowledge that these projects can take some time to work through to get them right, and we always respect government processes. We're approaching growth with discipline and patience, and these are exactly the kinds of projects that deliver long-term value for everyone. Looking further ahead, we know our underlying growth drivers are strong. Population in our existing markets will support new opportunities over time. For example, South East Queensland's population is expected to grow to around six million people over the next two decades. We're also keeping a close eye on shifts in government policy that may create long-term opportunities, including road user charging in Australia and New Zealand. In New Zealand, we participated in their market sounding process to help explore what a modern customer focused system could look like. In Australia, we're partnering with major freight operators to test real world ruck technology. Our goal is to work with governments to make sure any new system is simple and seamless for motorists. And as always, we're continuing to monitor government's infrastructure priorities. We know not everything will be on the table, and even investments we're not directly involved in can support growth on our assets. In the US, we're focused on disciplined capital allocation and active portfolio management. We have a growing set of opportunities in Virginia and we've also been exploring new partnerships elsewhere to build longer-term optionality where it makes sense for us. That's why we made the strategic decision to bid in Nashville while choosing to pass on bidding in Atlanta and to sell the A25 in Montreal. So the opportunity ahead is significant, but our approach remains disciplined and customer-focused. With that, I'll hand over to Henry to take you through the financial results.