Good day, everyone, thank you for joining us today. My name is Sashank Lanka. I cover the emerging EEMEA energy and c hemical sector at Bank of America in Dubai. We're delighted to host Salik's management today for their full year 2024 earnings call. With that, I will pass it over to Wassim, the Head of Investor Relations. Thank you.
Good afternoon, welcome to Salik's earnings call for the full year 2024 period. My name is Wassim El Hayek, Head of Investor Relations at Salik, and thank you for joining us for today's call. Our thanks for Bank of America team and Sashank for hosting today's call. Our speakers today are Mr. Maged Ibrahim, the CFO, and Mr. Tariq Ismail, our CTO. We are also joined by Mr. Tariq Al Mutawa, Salik's Support Services Director, and Mr. Hariharan Gopal, the Director of Strategy and Growth, who will be answering any relevant question that you may have. We will begin our presentation with some key strategic highlights, followed by detailed operational overview with a focus on our expanding ancillary revenue streams, and then followed by the financial review before closing with our financial guidance for the year and 2025, and then concluding remarks. We will open the floor for the Q&A.
Before we kick off the presentation, I would like to remind you for our disclaimer on slide two, which is relevant to our status as publicly listed company and which we encourage you to read. Please note that this call is recorded and transcript, and by attending this meeting, you consent to the transcription. Also, a reminder that a copy of this presentation is available on our website at salik.ae. That's all from my end. I will now hand over to our CFO, Mr. Maged Ibrahim.
Thank you, Wassim. Good morning or afternoon, everyone, wherever you are, and Ramadan Kareem. We began our operations in 2007, over 18 years ago, since then, we have come a long way as a business, growing exponentially alongside the Emirate of Dubai. While Salik has grown, our unique underlying strengths have remained the same. We have 100% exclusivity in Dubai as the only toll gate operator in the Emirate, with an attractive concession framework extending far into the future, ending 2071, and a unique asset-light approach where we are responsible only for the maintenance of our gates. This means that our core tolling business is by design positioned for sustained and stable growth long term. Something which we have become laser-focused on in the years following our successful IPO in 2022, is the importance of ancillary revenue streams.
We now see this as not just complementing our core business, but as a second pillar of our revenue model. With the rise of technology, there is incredible future potential in the revenue from ancillary streams. While we may have grown significantly over the years, our ambition has remained the same, to become a leader in providing a sustainable and smart mobility solution. As I mentioned, our business is growing exponentially alongside Dubai, whose macroeconomic outlook is extremely positive. 2024 saw Dubai International Airport achieving world's busiest airport status for the tenth consecutive year. While private school enrollments increased by around 6%, underscoring the Emirate is not just a place to visit, but also to reside. This reflects a population growth target of 57% by 2040.
National plans also support this growth, whether it is a AED 32 trillion economic plan to double size the Dubai economy, or more directly related to Salik, the Dubai 2040 Urban Master Plan to transform the Emirate's interconnectedness. Around 46% of the annual budget is directed to infrastructure enhancement, of which roads are central. Looking at just a few of the positive indicators, we can see here why Dubai's GDP grew 3.1% year-on-year in the first nine months of 2024, as per the latest release, contributing to a macroeconomic environment which supports Salik's growth. Next. We have been ramping up our strategic progress in recent years. Having made significant progress since our IPO in 2022. This has spanned both our core tolling businesses and ancillary revenue streams.
In core tolling, while we initially focused on ease of access to obtaining and topping up Salik accounts and integration with the government portals outside of Dubai for those visiting the Emirate, our focus more recently has been on long-term value creation. This includes the introduction of the two new gates and variable pricing. Both new toll gates will not only improve traffic flow across the city, but will also have a positive long-term impact on Salik's core tolling business. We recently announced several exciting collaborations across parking and insurance solutions which we will expand on in more detail, leveraging our customer database within strict privacy parameters. We are able to take advantage of our superior technology to further drive ancillary revenue growth long term. Turning now into our key highlights for the year, where we saw strong growth across all key metrics.
Revenue generating trips reached 498.1 million trips, increasing 8% year-on-year at the top end of the guided range, with Q4 generating trips growing 15.8% year-on-year. Gross and total revenue exceeded guidance, rising 8.7% year-on-year to reach AED 2.3 billion, as Q4 revenue increased by 15.6% year-on-year. We also saw very strong profitability in the period, as our EBITDA margin reached 68.9%, expanded by over 300 basis points year-on-year. Salik generated net profit after tax of AED 1.2 billion, an increase of 6.1% compared with the previous year, after accounting for the introduction of the new corporate tax of 9%. In view of the concessions, a very attractive framework and Salik's robust business model, I am pleased to tell you that our profit margins are among the highest in the global toll operation industry.
Operationally, as well, as we will go into more detail later, we introduced a variable pricing model, which is expected to generate additional revenue between AED 60 million and AED 110 million on annual basis. Increased our toll gates from 8 to 10, with the two new gates having a combined valuation of AED 2.7 billion to be paid on a semi-annual basis, interest free, over a period of six years. Grew our ancillary revenue with parking payment solutions and insurance partnerships. We obtained a strong investment-grade credit rating from both credit rating agencies, Moody's and Fitch. I will now hand over to Tariq Ismail, our CTO, who will take you through the mobility highlights for the period, as well as an update on our strategic progress.
Thank you, Maged. Good afternoon, everyone. Let's take a look at Salik's key operational highlights in the full year of 2024. As the population of Dubai grows, so do number of trips through our gates. The total number of trips, including discounted trips, made through Salik's toll gates grew 7.6% year-on-year in 2024, driven by Dubai's continued attraction of tourists and growth in commercial activities. Our primary performance indicator, which is revenue generating trips, increased by 8% year-on-year to 498.1 million, which is at the top end of the guided range, with fourth quarter generating trips growing 15.8% year-on-year. In line with the government of Dubai's continued success in expanding economic growth and pursuing initiatives to attract tourists and residents, we saw a material increase in the registration of vehicles and Salik accounts.
Active registered accounts reached 2.6 million by the end of the fourth quarter, which is an increase on the previous quarter of 2.5% and 7.4% year-on-year. Taking a closer look at the mobility patterns for each of our gates on a quarterly basis. In line with the increase in total revenue generating trips, growth continued across most of our gates, both year-on-year and compared with the previous quarter, by 15.8% and 21.7% respectively. Our only gate to see a slight drop is Al Safa North, which is due to the opening of Al Safa South gate, as traffic flow is redistributed between both gates. Overall, we have seen a net increase across both Al Safa gates. If we move from quarterly revenue generating trips through our gates to annual trips, we can see stable year-on-year increase both in total and across each of our gates.
Annual total trips and annual revenue generating trips have increased by 7.6% and 8% respectively, while all of our gates have seen a year-on-year increase each year since 2021. As instructed by RTA, we introduced variable pricing on January 31st 2025. Variable pricing aimed to enhance traffic flow across Dubai's road network and improve transportation efficiency across the city. Based on studies conducted by RTA that have indicated a need for implementing a variable tariff system that adjusts by peak hours at specific times of the day and allowing for tariff exemptions during certain periods. Based on initial projections, the new pricing model is expected to generate additional revenue of AED 60 million-AED 110 million on an annual basis. As touched on earlier in the presentation, this year marked an important milestone in expanding our ancillary revenue streams with the successful launch of two parking payment solutions.
In the third quarter, we successfully launched Salik's barrier-free parking payment solution at Dubai Mall. This technology-driven initiative enhances the parking experience of visitors in a strategic partnership with Emaar Malls to improve convenience at the world's famous shopping and leisure destination. The performance of the parking solution has been strong, with a revenue contribution of AED 5.8 million since launching in July. The solution has been received extremely well, having processed 100% seamless transactions since launch, in line with our strategy to provide a seamless parking solution and to enhance the guest experience for the residents and visitors of Dubai. In the fourth quarter, we announced our partnership with Parkonic, the UAE's largest private sector parking operator. This partnership is based on a five-year contract, during which Parkonic will integrate with Salik's wallet into the 107 locations it operates, and any future locations it may operate in the UAE.
This agreement also marks the first time Salik has expanded its services offering outside the Emirate of Dubai. These partnerships expand and enhances our ancillary revenue streams, which is a key strategic pillar and area of focus for sustainable growth over the medium to long term. In addition to growing our ancillary revenue streams through parking partnerships, we also entered a strategic partnership with Liva Group, which is a prominent regional insurance provider, to offer one of a kind bespoke insurance solution to drivers in the UAE. Streamlining the renewal process for a greater convenience and efficiency. We will leverage our comprehensive driver and vehicle database to provide value-added services to customers by sending timely renewal reminders. It is just another example of how we are exploring new opportunities to leverage our unique technology and data capabilities to improve the travel experience of road users in the UAE.
I will now pass over again to Maged, our CFO, to take you through Salik's full year financial performance.
Thank you, Tariq. I will briefly take you through our key highlights before looking at our financials in more detail. Total revenue gross for the full year period exceeded our guidance, increasing almost 9% year-on-year to reach AED 2.3 billion. Q4 revenue increased by 15.6% year-on-year. Aligned to this, our revenue generating trips also increased, reaching 498.1 million trips, growing 8% year-on-year. At the top end of the guided range. With Q4 generating trips increasing 15.8% year-on-year. We also saw a very strong profitability in the period as the margin expanded by over 300 basis points year-on-year and increased significantly by 13.6% year-on-year to AED 1.6 billion, with Q4 seeing an increase of 26.7%.
We generated a net profit after tax of AED 1.2 billion, an increase of 6.1% compared with the prior year. Overall, it's another strong year with impressive financial records, where all key indicators report significant positive increases. Now looking at our revenue and cost base through to profitability. The toll usage fines and penalties and other revenue amounted to AED 2.3 billion. When accounting for the concession fees, operation and maintenance related costs, and other costs such as commissions and employee benefits, resulted in EBITDA of AED 1.6 billion. Accounting for depreciation and amortization and net finance costs, profit before tax come in at AED 1.28 billion, an increase of 16.6% year-on-year.
Once we account for the new corporate tax in the UAE, which Salik is subject to pay from January 2024, profit for the period totaled AED 1.16 billion, representing a strong 6.1% increase year-on-year with a strong net profit margin of 50.8% in 2024. We delivered a very strong performance in the year, where strong growth in revenue generating trips has driven total revenue to increase by 8.7% year-on-year to AED 2.3 billion. Mainly due to an 8% year-on-year increase in revenue from toll usage fee, supported by the inflow of tourists and growth in the movement of individuals across Dubai. In addition to the impact from the introduction of the two new gates. A 9.3% year-on-year increase in revenue from fines, and a 7% year-on-year increase in revenue from tag activations.
Let's turn to the next slide, where we have seen a consistent growth in our revenue from toll usage over the years, with fourth quarter toll usage revenues increasing 15.8% year-on-year to AED 570.2 million, with Q4 being a seasonally stronger period and also supported by the introduction of the two new gates. Looking at revenue from toll usage over the 12-month period, it increased by 8% year-on-year to AED 2 billion. The strong growth was supported by the growing inflow of tourists and increased movement of individuals across Dubai. Looking at profitability. Salik has a clear history of consistent EBITDA growth and strong margins. We generated EBITDA of AED 1.6 billion in the full year period, growing 13.6% year-on-year, driven by strong EBITDA growth in the fourth quarter.
Growing 26.7% year-on-year to AED 464.1 million. Salik's highest quarterly EBITDA performance since inception. Our EBITDA margin reached 68.9% in the full year 2024, representing approximately 300 basis points year-on-year expansion. Margins expanded significantly in the fourth quarter to 71.3%, a 630 basis point improvement year-on-year. As a reminder, Salik's cost structure includes a number of elements consisting of further concession fee of 22.5% of toll usage revenue. As on April 1st, 2024, RTA approved the reduction of the concession fees from 25% to 22.5% of toll usage revenues, wherein the concession fees were adjusted after the annual inflation rate for the Emirate of Dubai was announced by the Dubai Statistics Center, amounting to 3.33% for the year 2023.
Also, we have the amortization of the AED 4 billion upfront concession fee, which is capitalized and amortized over 49 years, in addition to the amortization of the upfront fees for the two new gates valued at AED 2.7 billion, capitalized and amortized starting November 2024. Finally, we have also a finance cost relating to our AED 4 billion term facility, in addition to the implied interest cost related to the RTA liabilities for the two new gates. Next. Subsequent to our strong EBITDA generation and margin performance, our full year net profit before tax grew significantly, increasing 16.6% year-on-year, reaching AED 1.28 billion, and fourth quarter profit before tax increasing 27.5% year-on-year. Net profit after tax, accounting for the new corporate tax, which Salik is subject to pay from January 2024, totaled AED 1.16 billion, representing a strong 6.1% increase year-on-year.
In the fourth quarter, profit after tax reached AED 342.5 million, growing 16% compared to the prior year. It's worth noting that, on a comparative basis, the impact of the new corporate tax will only be felt in our 2024 financials. Let's look at the cash flow dynamics. We generated free cash flow of AED 1.5 billion in the 12-month period, growing 0.5% year-on-year with a free cash flow margin of 63.6%. Free cash flow reached AED 402.6 million in the fourth quarter, a slight drop by 1.5% year-on-year, but increased 8.7% compared to the previous quarter with a free cash flow margin of 61.8%. The free cash flow margin dropped by approximately 510 basis points in 12-month period, mainly relating to the payment of the concessionary rights to RTA pertaining to the two new toll gates.
Salik balance sheet remains solid with a strong cash and cash equivalent balance of AED 963.7 million. Net debt at the end of the 12 months period totaled AED 5.2 billion from AED 3.2 billion at the end of the nine months period, mainly due to the liabilities from the concessionary right of RTA pertaining to the two new gates. This translates to a trailing 12 months, 3.29x net debt to EBITDA, significantly below our covenant of 5x. We also achieved strong investment grade credit rating by both Moody's and Fitch. This milestone affirms Salik's robust financial position, operational strengths, and proactive approach to enhance transparency while optimizing access to the capital market in the future. We would like here to remind you all that Salik remains committed to delivering value to its shareholders.
In light of the strong year performance, the board of directors propose a dividend of AED 619.8 million to be paid during the first half of 2025. This brings total dividends for full year of 2024 to almost AED 1.2 billion, representing 100% of full year 2024 net profit.
I think we're still stuck. I think it's frozen.
If you can just mute, please. Thank you. We are looking at the guidance for 2025. Turning to our business outlook, we are pleased to revise our guidance for 2025 upwards, projecting a revenue increase of 28%-29% comparing to a full year 2024. The higher revenue growth is due to a multiple factors, including revenue from the two new gates, the implementation of the variable pricing, the continued closure of the floating bridge, and growing contribution from ancillary revenue streams. We expect our EBITDA margin will remain robust in 2025. Within the 68%-69% range, in line with 2024. While the net profit margin before and after tax are expected to be in the range of 54%-55% and 49%-50%, respectively, as you can see.
In summary, we are very pleased to report strong full-year performance and to revise our guidance upwards with the expectation of strong momentum continuing through 2025. We are also pleased to have reported such a strong year in financial and operational performance across both our core tolling and ancillary business. Salik continues to thrive, and we remain focused on diversifying our portfolio. With that, we will now be more than happy to answer all your questions. We can open the Q&A session.
Yes. Thank you, Maged. If anyone on the call has questions, please raise your hand and we can direct them towards management. Our first question comes from Mohammed Al Funayan from Jadwa. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi. Thank you for having us on the call and congratulations on the great set of results. Based on our earlier communication, which is also, I believe, reflected in the valuation differences between the two new gates. The Business Bay gate was expected to generate around 90 million trips. This aligns with the Q4 figures as the gate was operational for one month. However, what is somewhat surprising is the contribution of Safa South gate, which recorded a similar number of trips to the Business Bay gate and above the previous guides of around 25 million-30 million trips. Even after accounting for the cannibalization effect from Safa North gate, the numbers remain very impressive.
My question is, do you believe that the number of trips generated by Safa New Gate is sustainable and will continue to be strong for the remainder of 2025, or was there an unusual surge in traffic toward the gate during the last month of the year?
Thank you, Mohammed. I can answer this by simply saying, you need to understand the mechanism of how the gates are working. Usually we capture the vehicles, and we capture the tariff on the first gate you are passing through. If you are coming from the direction from Abu Dhabi towards Sharjah, you will be captured on the new Safa gate first, and this is where it will be recorded to Safa tariffs. Where we will see, as of now, even though it is too early to assess whether this will be sustainable or not. It is very important to stress on the point that it is all about redistributing the traffic between the two gates. Which gate that you will pass first then will be the tariffs captured and attached to those gates.
That is why you may see a significant increase on the Safa South, while actually it took somehow from Safa North, if it is only Safa North was existing.
Yeah. Do you think that the numbers recorded during the last month of the year, are that surprising when it comes to the Safa South and Safa North combined figures, I would say? Because that traffic is 5.2 million, which is quite significant.
Yeah. Which is true. We cannot specifically isolate exactly the trips coming specifically from this new gates, and because it is all about the distribution of when you are capturing the tolls. On contrary, on the other direction, if you go, let's say from Sharjah towards Abu Dhabi, the old Safa gate, the existing Safa, the old Safa gate will capture the tariff and you will see an increase in it compared to the new Safa gate.
That's clear. Yeah.
Yeah. It's not that straightforward that you can split.
Yeah
You can split the traffic coming from the gates.
That's clear. My last question is, should we expect a change in the dividend policy given the boost of AED 355 million from the difference between the face value and the present value of the RTA loan?
Eh.
would enhance your return to earnings, I believe, during the fourth quarter.
Yeah. Absolutely. I don't want to say that there will be an additional dividend or not because we are now studying all the options, and we'll make sure that it will be in favor of our shareholders, and we'll present it to our board, and the board of directors will take the decision. I want to assure you that we will study all the possible options available for dealing with this one.
No problem. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from Ankur Aggarwal, from HSBC.
Thanks, Sashank. Thank you management for the presentation. My question is around the ancillary revenue. Can you quantify the medium-term potential of the two streams, specifically Parkonic plus Dubai Mall and the tie-up with Liva, the insurance company. What's the quantum of revenue we are looking at, let's say, if not immediately next year, in the next two, three years, in terms of ancillary revenue?
Yeah. Ankur. Hi, Gopal here. In terms of Dubai Mall, I think we've published the numbers. We've done pretty well, almost AED 5.7 million in the second half of last year, it's continuing to perform well also. In terms of the Parkonic and Liva, I think Parkonic, we've just started going live with one location. Both are quite at an early stage, right? I would request, we want to wait and watch how this business grows before we can give any firm commitments on the numbers.
Can we extrapolate the Dubai Mall performance based on the number of partners of Parkonic? Obviously, we have an idea of the parking fees or the minimum or the range, right?
Yeah. No, maybe not. Because if you look at Parkonic, there are about over 107 locations. Each location is different. There is off-street parking, on-street parking. The business rules are quite different at each location. Extrapolating from the Dubai Mall performance, I don't think that might give you an accurate estimation.
All right. My second question is regarding, again, the impact of dynamic pricing, right? I know a third-party consultant estimated it, but what is the implied utilization impact which led to the number that you came up with, right, in terms of the impact of dynamic pricing? It seems a bit conservative, right? What is the impact on utilization of an increase in toll charges that has gone into the calculation?
Gopal, can you elaborate a little bit on the traffic study that has been done for this?
Yeah. We had a traffic consultant who did a detailed study on the impact of dynamic pricing. Based on that, the expected change in the behavior is primarily only in the peak toll traffic, which is expected to decrease slightly. Right? Hence, based on that, we believe that the additional revenue that could be generated based on the new tariff will be somewhere between AED 60 million-AED 110 million only.
Again, Ankur, similar to when you introduce a new gate. There's a behavioral change that we see for a while, between three to six months, based on my previous experience while I was in RTA, and until the behavior of the drivers settle on some routes that even though it's tolled, but it will continue using it. That's why the study incorporated this change in behavior and the anticipated change in behavior, and hopefully, we will see where it will land.
All right. Very helpful. Thanks a lot. I'll join the queue for any further questions. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from Waleed Jimma from Goldman Sachs.
Hello. Thank you for taking my question. I have a couple. We've seen the RTA's been very proactive in trying to manage traffic in Dubai. Do you expect that there could be room to add more gates in the near term versus historically every four to five years? Second, on the cost side, there seems to be a reversal in impairment on receivables booked in the fourth quarter. Could you share the drivers behind it and how should we think about impairments on receivables as a percentage of revenue for year 2025? Actually, just a third one, if you don't mind. How should we think about the contribution from ancillary revenues to your top line? Maybe if you could just add some color on the focus areas for growing that revenue line item going forward.
Okay. I will take the first two questions, I leave Gopal to answer the third one. When it comes to the new gates, as we always say, it is a traffic management tool, it is RTA, the one who decide where and when we may need a gate. There's a number of solutions. Like they can expand the road to solve a congestion or a traffic issue. Or if it is like Business Bay crossing, it's a bridge over the water, there's no way that they can expand it. The gate was the right solution for it. Again, it is a traffic management tool, and we are not sure when or where RTA will be able to introduce new gates.
Talking about the ECL, as I mentioned in the previous earnings calls in the Q3, if you remember, that we were studying our provision mechanism and methodology, as we can see a higher ECL comparing. We are very conservative, to be honest, and we are taking higher provision than it really reflects the actual recovery rates of the fine payments. We came up with a new methodology. We discuss it with our external auditors, PwC, and they are aligned with it. It's really resulted in a significant reduction on the P&L expense charged to the P&L. Make sure that this is only one-off for this year to correct the situation and correct the new methodology. Going forward, it will be as a consistent charge based on the recovery rates. I believe, Gopal, if you can take the question about the ancillary.
Sure. Yeah. Thank you, Maged. As we said, the growth of ancillary revenue, it is a key focus area for us and a vital component of our strategy to deliver our long-term ambitions. As we've said multiple times in the past, we expect the contribution of the ancillary revenues to represent about 5%-15% of the consolidated revenue by 2028 plus, so in the long term. We've already made, as I said, significant progress on that front with the partnership with the Dubai Mall, where we've made very good revenues in the second half of last year, and we are continuing to grow that. Along with the partnership with Parkonic, and the insurance initiative, I believe we should be able to grow in the coming years.
We are also exploring other opportunities to build a portfolio vehicle-centered mobility services, which can enhance the services for the customers through the Salik e-wallet account that we have. We are currently studying multiple opportunities related to that, and once we have more concrete information, I think we will announce that to the market.
Thank you. The next question comes from Anna Antonova from JP Morgan.
Yes. Good afternoon, gentlemen. Thank you for the presentation. A quick question from our side. In light of the introduction of variable pricing, historically, Salik toll tariff has been fixed for quite some time, how should we think about the inflation adjustment mechanism that is currently outlined in your concession agreement with RTA? I remember you had slides outlining the formula, how this had historically worked in the past, but in the past, the toll fee was fixed. Now we understand every month, every quarter, the average toll tariff, realized tariff will be different depending on the traffic and other variables. How should we think about this inflation adjustment mechanism going forward? On the connected note, regarding the inflation adjustment for last year, what is the current progress? Have you applied to the executive council for the inflation adjustment for 2024?
Should we expect the outcome similar to what we saw in March, April last year? Thanks.
Thank you, Anna. Maybe the second question is, you know, answer for the first one. Now we have a new tariff structure where we have four and six. The formula that has been introduced before is not valid anymore. We are now in the final stages of discussion and agreeing with RTA on the updated formula for the concession fee adjustment and the tariff adjustment due to inflation. Mainly now we have to look at the blended rates at the end of the year, which is the average rate. We need to look at the blended rate and compare it to the inflation percentage. In brief, we already, yes, we applied for the tariff increase to RTA when the inflation has been announced by the Dubai Statistics Center this year, it was around 3.3% or 3.28%, if I can recall it well.
We already applied for the-
3.28.
Yeah, 3.28.
3.28, yeah.
We already in the discussion right now to define a new formula that will not deviate much from the original one because we need to stick to the same principle, same concept, but to reflect the new tariff structure in order to give a more realistic outcome when it comes to compare it with the inflation increase and where the tariff should go. We will announce this once we reach this, once we finalize it with RTA, which we expect this will be soon. It will not take that much long time.
Understood. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Shadab Ashfaq from Alramz.
Thank you for the presentation. I have two questions. First, given the peak traffic account for 40% of the total traffic in 2024, but an impact on the revenue that is guided by you is only 3%-6%. What are the key factors driving this discrepancy? Can you highlight what are the traffic patterns going forward? My second question is, would RTA consider revising the concession fee structure given that a portion of traffic is now being higher tolled? We're trying to understand the potential impact of the variable traffic on the concession agreement terms. Thank you.
I can answer the second question because as per the concession agreement, RTA is entitled to get the percentage for the concession, whatever, 22.5% as of now or whatever it will be from the toll usage. Regardless of this toll usage coming from the AED 4 or from AED 6, which means the total toll usage revenues is coming at the end of the year, RTA will be entitled to the concession percentage. I believe I will try to answer the first question, and I leave my CTO to elaborate more about this composition of the traffic. The composition of the traffic that was before introducing the variable pricing, where we saw approximately the peak between 39%-40%. While the off-peak was 52% and what's called right now as a zero time or the free time is around 8%.
It is very difficult to assess how introducing the variable pricing or the new pricing will impact these segments. How the off-peak will become, maybe it become 40, or remain 40, be reduced. It is too early to assess this right now. I am not sure whether this answered your question or not. Otherwise, our CTO can give you a bit more on it.
Yeah. I agree with you, Ibrahim. It is a bit early maybe to assess the impact of the variable pricing on the behavior of people and traffic. We saw a slight increase in the free time, right? Not necessarily with the same average of other peak and off-peak timings. It is a bit early to assess the impact. I think once people adjust and it impacts them financially and they explore other route alternatives, with time, we will assess, we will have better clarity and visibility on the impact of this variable tolling.
Yeah. Understood.
Thank you. This is Sashank from Bank of America. Maybe I can just follow up on the concession fee arrangement with the new dynamic pricing in place. Is our understanding correct that the concession fees remains 22.5%? That does not change. It is going to be based on the blended revenues that you make of AED 4 and AED 6. What would change is how the AED 4 changes for the inflation-linked mechanism. Is that understanding correct, or is there going to be a change in the concession fee formula as well based on what you said in terms of discussions with RTA?
No, the only change related to the inflation protection mechanism, where we will introduce a request or we request a tariff increase and to protect against the inflation. As you truly said, your understanding is correct. The concession fee, which is 22.5% as of now, it's percentage of the total usage revenues, regardless it's coming from the AED 4 or from the AED 6.
Okay. Understood. Thank you. We have a question from Nitin Garg from SICO.
Yeah. Hi, this is Nitin. We read that UAE has contracted Etihad Rail. How should we think about the impact of this? Because one phase of Etihad Rail, I think 1B or something it is, it connects Dubai and Sharjah.
Gopal, can you take this?
First of all, I think it is too early to comment on that. What I can say is that historically, what we have seen is when other public transportation modes were getting added to the transportation network in Dubai, it did not have any impact on the Salik toll traffic. It continued to grow because the profile of users who use the Salik gates and the private cars are quite different from the people who use the public transportation modes. Because of that, we also have one of the highest penetrations of private cars in the world, and hence, due to all these reasons, we have not seen any sort of negative impact in the past due to the addition of any public transportation modes.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Mohammed, do you have a question? I see your hand raised.
Yes. I have a question regarding the implied assumptions of applying the new variable pricing. I believe you mentioned that 40% is peak, 52% is off-peak, and 8% is free. However, from your guidance for next year and according to the higher end of the variable pricing impact, which is the AED 110 million, it seems that you are implying that basically the off-peak would go from around 52% to 65%. That is the only way we can get to the blended tariff that you are assuming of around AED 4.2 or AED 4.22 or AED 4.23. I just want to better understand the ramifications that you made to get to the AED 60 million-AED 110 million. I mean, for peak and off-peak traffic.
Yeah. Actually, the 40% and the 52% and the 8%, this is the segments before introducing the variable pricing.
Yeah.
When the consultant did his study, he considered some reduction in the traffic due to the behavior change and due to using alternative ways of alternative free routes. This is the outcome of the study. It's a very complicated study. It's a very detailed one. It has a number of considerations. It had including also some monitoring tools that has been implemented on the routes to assess this 40% and 50%, was it consistent or just fluctuation? The outcome of the study was AED 60 million-AED 110 million. That's why I'm saying it's still too early now to assess. Maybe if we give it three to six months, we'll have a better visibility on these categories and segments, whether it's going to really reduce or increase. Let's say that the peak will get significantly reduced or get somehow stable. It's too early to assess right now.
We need some time for the driver to have some kind of adjusting the new tariffs and react based on that.
Yeah. That's clear. On the new formula that you're finalizing with RTA, can you share some more details on that, please? Previously, it was straightforward, simple. The CPI, you apply for it, whether RTA will approve it or not, and that would be adjusted with tariff or deducted from the concession fee. Now, how would that work exactly?
We try to make it the same way, simple, but in introducing this, what we call a blended rate, that we need to look at the blended rate at a point of time and match it with the request for tariff increase. Which means the tariff increase based on the blended rate too. If I have right now the blended rate is 4.3 or 4.4, whatever it is, and the inflation will lead to an increase in tariff cumulatively starting from the base year in 2022 to become like the tariff should be 4.4 or 4.5. I need to compare it with the blended rate, and here we will see whether I need to apply a tariff increase or if it's going to be a concession fee reduction.
Again, we will announce this once we conclude it with RTA, and we don't expect this will take long because currently we are in the final stages right now.
That's clear. One last question regarding the EBITDA margin, the 68%-69%. You're not assuming any concession fee adjustments on that?
No, we don't. No, we are not. We are not.
That's clear. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question is from Louise from Morgan Stanley.
Yep. Hi, everyone. Thank you for the presentation. If I can just continue the last question a little bit. Firstly, on your EBITDA margin guidance is 68%-69% full year 2025 versus 68.9% in FY 2024, while in FY 2024 you only benefited from the lower concession fee for nine months of the year. I'm just wondering, is there extra costs that we should expect in full year 2025 as to why you can't expand your margin further? What are your assumptions there, would be my first question. My second, a shorter one, is just on your assumptions with the floating bridge. Is there any updates there? Might we expect to see that reopen at some time in the future? Any color on that would be helpful. Thank you.
For the floating bridge, we assume it will remain closed. We have no information whether it's going to be reopened again or not. That's why we assume that it will remain closed. When it comes to the EBITDA margin, there is no significant increase in the expenses other than the ramping up the employee numbers. We expect that we will have more hiring in 2025, along with ERP implementation costs and some one-off consultant costs.
Thank you.
Thank you. If I can just follow up on the EBITDA margin question. Q4 2024, you had 71.3% EBITDA margin and tying into the last question, again, 2025, you're saying 68%-69%. Just wondering why were margins in Q4 so high?
It's a seasonality. As you know, in Salik, not each quarter performs similar like the previous quarter. We have the highest quarter always in Q4, followed by Q1, then Q2, and Q3 usually is the weakest performer when it comes to the Salik tolls.
Okay.
It is due to seasonality, simply.
Okay. Thank you. I think we have a follow from Anna from JP Morgan.
Thank you. Quick follow-up question from our side, actually, going back to your previous comments on the performance of the two new gates in Q4. Our question is, based on the Q4 numbers with all the things that have been happening, do the Q4 numbers operating stats imply that your guidance for the number of trips for these two gates that you provided last year, I think on a full year basis it was around 88 million for Business Bay and 23 million for Safa South revenue generating for the full year. Does the Q4 performance imply that this guidance remains intact, or you see upside or downside risks to those numbers? Thanks.
No. The numbers are aligned with our expectations that should come from those gates.
Very clear. Thank you.
Thank you. We have a question from. Okay. It doesn't seem like the question is there anymore. Yes, we have a question from Indarpreet from SICO. Please.
Yeah. Hi. Thanks for the question, please. Just one question from my side, arguing on the variable pricing part. Given that this variable pricing has been in place for over a month now, just wanted to understand whether what you see that the distribution of the traffic, that 40:52:8% split, has it been consistent for the month of April during the month of Feb, or has it been different than that?
Again, it's too early to assess it whether it's impacted or not, because usually, as I always say, when you introduce a new gate, you have a change in behavior from the users. Imagine now we are introducing a new gate and a variable pricing both at the same time. Whatever number we are seeing right now, it will not be reliable to assess the impact of the variable pricing to be honest. I prefer to give it some time to adjust for the new rates and the new behavior, and we will come up with what we see, and it will be announced soon.
Understood. Thanks a lot.
Thank you. It doesn't seem like we have any further questions, I'll pass it over to management.
Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Sashank. Thanks for Bank of America for organizing today's call, thank you all for attending, especially during the Ramadan timing. Please, if you have any follow-up question, please feel free to reach out to us at investor.relations@salik.ae or to me directly, or visit our website at salik.ae. Thank you very much and have a good day, everyone.