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We are committed to continue delivering
value for our Shareholders and this was
reflected by the $91.3 million dividend
payment for the year – nearly double
the return on the year prior.
This has been a pleasing result as it
has been delivered during a time of
subdued business confidence, low
commodity prices and other difficult
external economic factors – particularly
our exposure to difficult global coal
market conditions affecting our
Hunter Valley customers.
During the year Moody’s adjusted our
credit rating to A1 from Aa2, primarily
driven by their outlook for thermal coal.
Despite this, the rating agency reaffirmed
that we continue to hold a strong
investment grade rating underpinned by
our robust and diverse market position
and the essential nature of our business.
There were two major announcements
relating to ARTC in the Federal Budget
released in May. The Australian
Government confirmed that it had
decided to retain ownership of ARTC
to leverage our skills, value and technical
expertise to deliver the Inland Rail
Programme, in particular the pre-
construction works.
The Government committed a further
$593.7 million to the Programme in the
Budget and with over 70 people now
working on Inland Rail we are well
and truly underway with getting
the Programme shovel-ready.
Transformation
ARTC continues to build on its position
as a leading rail network owner serving
multiple supply chains across the
country. A key driver in our success
to become more customer-focused
and to create value for the users of our
network is our Transformation Program.
The progress of our organisational
transformation is evident in three
year-on-year increases in our annual
customer satisfaction survey. Over the
three surveys we have undertaken we
have moved our customer satisfaction
score from 5.7 to 6.3 last year to 6.6 this
year. The trend is pleasing as customer
satisfaction is fundamental to bringing
more freight onto rail.
We also measured our reputation among
our key customers for the first time and
this returned a score of 77.6 percent -
which is in the above-average range and
a competitive score amongst our industry
peers. Nonetheless we recognise that we
can get better and we are committed to
further improvement in this area.
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