Transurban bid to allay ACCC WestConnex concerns

Transurban will publish more toll road data as it seeks clearance for a takeover of Sydney’s WestConnex project.

The WestConnex construction site. Pic: Gordon McComiskie

Transurban will publish more toll road data as tries to win competition watchdog clearance for a takeover of Sydney’s WestConnex project.

It comes after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission released a statement of issues on the proposed takeover, raising preliminary competition concerns.

The regulator has been worried that Transurban, which operates 15 of Australia’s 19 toll roads, will have access to detailed road data, giving it an unfair competitive advantage in future toll road bids, if its Westconnex bid takeover is successful.

Transurban is competing with a consortium led by IFM for a 51 per cent equity stake in WestConnex.

The ACCC said today that Transurban has upped the detail of data it would publish to competitors in a bid to allay competition concerns, offering 15-minute-interval toll gantry data each quarter, including vehicle count, vehicle classification and direction of traffic flow.

The company would also seek to publish data with the same level of detail for roads it jointly owned and would have to gain consent from partners on, but would publish more aggregated sets of data for those roads if it could not gain consent.

But the ACCC said it’s still considering if the undertaking adequately addresses competition concerns.

“We have not formed a final view on the competitive impact of the proposed acquisition or whether the undertaking is capable of addressing any potential lessening of competition,” ACCC chair Rod Sims said.

Transurban previously agreed to publish detailed toll traffic data for all toll roads in New South Wales in which it holds an interest, in response to competition concerns.

In July, the ACCC asked for a further seven weeks to make a ruling on the bid, in order to gain a better understanding of the competition issues at play.

“Some of the feedback from the industry has indicated that Transurban’s rivals may have trouble competing on an equal footing for future toll road concessions because they do not have the level of data that Transurban has,” Mr Sims said today.

“Given the short time frame to review the proposed acquisition, the ACCC has decided to release Transurban’s proposed undertaking for consultation before reaching concluded views on these issues.”

The ACCC said its proposed decision date is September 6, but could be moved forward.

Yesterday, Transurban booked a jump in annual net profit to $468m for the year ended June 30, exceeding the analyst consensus of $450m, from $209m a year earlier.