E-toll customer centre on Beyers Naude BP offramp. Picture:Paballo Thekiso E-toll customer centre on Beyers Naude BP offramp. Picture:Paballo Thekiso
The Austrian firm that won the contract to operate the controversial e-tolling in Gauteng saw its share price in the stock market shoot up, thanks to the announcement that the tolling would start on December 3 – prompting further anger from the opponents of the system.
Kapsch TrafficCom, which has a majority shareholding in the electronic toll collection joint venture that won the multibillion-rand contract to build and operate e-tolling, saw its stock price increase significantly from a low of e30.16 on August 28 to almost e41 (R559) a share by yesterday in Vienna.
Wayne Duvenage, the chairman of the Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance, expressed anger at the news yesterday, and said this was a “clear indication that Kapsch’s profitability is dependent” on e-tolling.
“That makes us very angry,” he said. “When the company said in June that it will be making R670 million in revenue from the project – that is the reason why e-tolling is expensive.”
Duvenage said Kapsch being an 85 percent shareholder in the joint venture that won the tolling contract, meant that the company would earn more than 40 percent of the R1.5 billion of collection costs.
The DA and the Freedom Front Plus have vowed to challenge the system in court, while Cosatu has said it will intensify its campaign against e-tolling and encouraged motorists not to buy e-tags.
In June, Kapsch’s share fell significantly, making it the worst performer on the Austrian stock market due to delays in the launching of e-tolls in Gauteng.
Daniel Lion, a Vienna-based analyst at Erste Group Bank, said the government’s decision to launch e-tolls had improved Kapsch’s share price “which is good”.
“It (the share price) has increased a bit these past few days since the announcement,” he said. “The whole thing with the contract has been going on for almost two years and there was a lot of uncertainty with the market.”
Lion said the company’s share price two years ago when the contract was signed was higher at e60 and that he expected it to increase again as soon as the project started operating. -Saturday Star