Traffic grew by 2 on average across Transurban's roads in Australia and North America,notwithstanding disruptions caused by construction works in Sydney,Melbourne and Brisbane.
However traffic dipped sharply in the fourth quarter,slowing to 0.3 per cent in Sydney and Melbourne and went backwards slightly (0.1 per cent) in Brisbane.
Mr Charlton said that was due to softer economic conditions,the timing of Easter,and the progression of major tram works in Sydney that saw a large number of trucks moving in and out of the city.
“So maybe a little bit weaker but nothing at this point that we’d be tremendously concerned about,"he said.
"We’re conscious of the current[economic] conditions but hopefully things will pick up from here.”
Chris Hillsdon,an analyst at Legg Mason's investment group RARE Infrastructure,said the softer traffic"was expected,given we’ve got interest rates coming down to where they are and obviously the economy’s not quite as strong as it has been in the past".
“The flip side and the benefit to that is that their interest costs continue to come down… which means you can maintain that cashflow through to equity,"he said.
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Mr Charlton said that while low interest rates delivered short-term benefits on new aquisitions,it did not change its overall investment outlook given the long life of the roads it operated.
"Clearly there’s a benefit in the shorter term where you know where interest rates are,you can lock in interest rates,"he said.
"[But] we’re looking at long-term risk profiles,long term equity returns and we’re looking at the long term averages."
Mr Hillsdon said the M5 buyout made"perfect sense",with Transurban able to reap benefits such as refinancing that were not possible under the group ownership.
One analyst,who declined to be named,said the traffic slowdown appear to be a function of"how many tradies are driving up and down... doing buildings and reno work".
"With the way the domestic economy is going,there is a lot less of that happening,"he said.
Mr Charlton said the number of motorists using the new M4 tunnels in Sydney were higher than expected since they opened last month,and that the company was interested in being part of the NSW government's western Sydney Harbour tunnel project.
Transurban also released its annual report on Wednesday,showing Mr Charlton was paid $7.16 million last year - including a $2.3 million short term bonus for meeting all of his key performance hurdles - which was $113,590 more than in the year prior.
Transurban's $500 million capital raising will be made through a fully underwritten pro-rata institutional offer at $14.70 a share,which is a 3.5 per cent discount to its closing price on Tuesday.
An additional share purchase plan will also be available to raise up to $200 million to fund the M5 aquisition and for general corporate costs,with shareholders able to buy up to $15,000 of new shares.
The company's shares were put in a trading halt until Thursday morning.