00:00Ignacio, good to speak with you. I want to talk a little bit about the highlight in your earnings report, which was 14 percent revenue growth in your highways business, especially in North America.
00:09That double digit rate gets my attention. What's the breakdown between increased tolls versus increased volumes?
00:17I think the highways in North America are doing very well, thanks to the growth in population and economic activity of the cities in which we are located.
00:26But the big increase is coming mainly from revenue per transaction because cities are more congested and we have the flexibility to capture the value to customers, mainly related to time savings, to reliability and safety.
00:40And because of that, we have been able to increase revenue per transaction in all our assets in North America, close to two digits in all of them, double digit.
00:48What are the prospects for expanding toll roads across the U.S. market? Geographically, where do you see the ripest opportunities?
00:54Well, we see a lot of opportunities to develop infrastructure in North America, especially in cities that are growing.
01:01Next year, we are bidding two large projects, one in Atlanta and another one in Nashville.
01:06There is also a pre-qualification in Charlotte also for the end of this year.
01:11So we see a lot of activity, not only in these cities, but cities are growing.
01:14They need additional infrastructure and working with private players like us is helping them to accelerate needed infrastructure that is going to support local economies.
01:23You mentioned cities. And of course, I wonder about the economics of implementing toll roads in some of the most congested cities like New York City, where we have congestion pricing in the heart of Manhattan to raise funds for mass transit.
01:34Does the experiment that we're doing here in New York make toll roads more palatable across the rest of U.S. cities?
01:41What we do in other cities like Dallas Forward, the I-66 that you mentioned before, is mainly express lanes.
01:49So we have a general purpose lane that is free. And then we have we are in two additional lanes that the people pay.
01:56And what we make sure in these express lanes is that the people save time and arrive on time and save to their location.
02:03I'm not sure it's easy to replicate that in New York.
02:05So it depends on the different type of highways and the problematic that you have there.
02:10But there are many cities in which is working very well.
02:13I mentioned the JFK Terminal 1, which, of course, is very exciting for anyone who flies into or out of JFK.
02:18That is on budget and scheduled to open in 2026.
02:22What kind of earnings impact is expected from this new asset?
02:25I think it's an important asset for us.
02:28Equity so far has been close to one billion dollars and the total investment and total capital for this in phase A and B is going to be 10 billion U.S. dollars.
02:37We're adding at the end 24 new gates to New Terminal 1, most of the wide body gates.
02:45And for us, it's a relevant asset as part of our portfolio.
02:49What we are bringing is growth to airlines and also a completely different customer experience.
02:53With a world-class terminal in which the user experience is going to be completely different to what you experience today.
03:00And if this proves successful, do you anticipate replicating this model and expanding your airport investments across the U.S.?
03:08Hopefully, yes, because what we see is that some airports need expansion and even some of them refurbishment.
03:15And working with private players like us is going to help them to accelerate that investment and improve customer experience.
03:22Now, you have a triple listing, New York, Madrid and Amsterdam.
03:26And I quoted the share price in New York a little bit earlier on.
03:30I'm curious in terms of when Federal Vial is expected to be included in the NASDAQ indexes,
03:36because that would open you up to a whole pool of passive investors.
03:41Yes, you are right.
03:42We are listed in three markets.
03:43The last one is NASDAQ last year.
03:46And we did that because at the end, 80 percent of the value of the company is in North America.
03:51And most of the opportunities, as we mentioned before, are in the U.S.
03:56So we see a very good pipeline in this specific market.
04:00At the end, I think that we qualify for the liquidity in the NASDAQ.
04:05And in some days, even the liquidity has been higher than in Madrid.
04:09And what we see is more liquidity with the stock.
04:11Being part of the NASDAQ 100, well, it depends on the market capitalization.
04:15And we'll see at the end of November.
04:16And I mentioned earlier that it's the 29th day of this U.S. government shutdown.
04:21Given that you are focused a lot more on the U.S., could a potential government shutdown that stays this length
04:27and continues impact your activities in the region in the fourth quarter?
04:33So far, we have been quite stable.
04:35Most of our customers are state entities or local municipalities.
04:39So not a big impact of coffee has lasted very long.
04:43We will have some issues relating with permits or maybe TIFIA funding in the future.
04:47But we don't anticipate that in the last quarter of the year.
04:50For our assets, we have the I-66.
04:52And the traffic is still performing similar to before the shutdown.
04:56So we'll see if it lasts in the following months.
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