Markets Salik reports H2 2022 profit of $144m as traffic levels recover By Pramod Kumar March 7, 2023, 7:23 AM Wam Toll usage revenue represented 87% of Salik's total revenue of AED2.1 billion last year Dubai’s toll gate operator Salik Company (Salik) reported a net profit of AED529 million ($144.02 million) for the second half of 2022. The period includes Salik’s concession agreement with the Roads & Transport Authority (RTA) until December 31, 2022. The board also proposed distributing 100 percent of Salik’s net profit for the second half of 2022, equivalent to an estimated AED491.4 million after deducting AED37.5 million as one-time statutory reserves after reaching the statutory limit of 50 percent of paid-in capital. Salik listed on the Dubai stock exchange in September last year, raising just over $1 billion from the sale of a 24.9 percent stake. Ibrahim Sultan Al Haddad, CEO of Salik, added: “The strong increase in toll road usage was a key driver of our success, compounded by traffic levels in the fourth quarter of 2022 having recovered to pre-pandemic levels.” Continued recovery from the pandemic pushed 13 percent year-on-year growth in revenue-generating trips to an estimated 413 million in 2022. In addition, Q4 2022 traffic level returned to the peak pre-pandemic level seen in Q4 2019. In 2022, the total number of trips made through Salik’s eight toll gates increased 12 percent year-on-year to 539 million from 481 million a year earlier, driven by continued recovery from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic as restrictions were fully lifted in Dubai. In addition, the positive growth resulted from Expo 2020 in the first quarter of 2022. Revenue-generating trips rose 13 percent to 413 million from 367 million in 2021. In the fourth quarter of 2022, the number of revenue-generating trips grew 15 percent quarter-on-quarter to 111 million, as activity picked up in October after the end of the summer holidays. The number of vehicles registered with Salik increased seven percent year-on-year to 3.7 million as of December 31, 2022, from 3.5 million a year earlier. Tag activations reached 779,000 in 2022, a 13 percent increase from last year.
