M25 operator nets record profit despite traffic jams and weekend closures
The consortium responsible for running the M25 hauled in a record £64m profit in 2024, it has been revealed.
made up of firms including Balfour Beatty, Egis Investment Partners and the US hege fund GCM Grosvenor and forms one of the UK’s biggest private finance initiative (PFI) contract.
It has run the UK’s busiest road for 15 years on behalf of National Highways, the state-owned body charged with maintaining and improving major A roads and motorways in England.
According to Companies House filings, pre-tax profit at Connect Plus rose from £55.3m in 2023 to just over £64m in the 12 months leading up to March 2024. Turnover also rose substantially, from £219.7m to £261.9m.
The M25, one of the UK’s so-called “shadow toll” roads, carries some 15 per cent of the UK’s total motorway traffic.
It means the government takes the bill for using the motorway off the hands of drivers, paying a per-vehicle fee to its private operators.
Connect Plus’s bumper earnings come despite a number of significant weekend closures this year and problems with traffic jams on the M25.
Closures have occured in March, May and July this year to make room for construction work intended on boosting the routes’ capacity.
The March closure, when engineers were brought in to demolish the Clearmount Bridleway bridge between junctions 10 and 11, marked the first-ever planned daytime all-lane closure of the M25.
Connect Plus itself did not make the decision to close the road earlier this year, however due to the nature of its contract, revenue growth will have been impacted by any reduction in vehicle numbers.