Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (Brookfield Infrastructure, BIP, or the Partnership) announced its results for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2022.
“2022 was another successful year for Brookfield Infrastructure. We achieved organic growth exceeding our target range, recorded our highest quarterly FFO per unit, secured outsized capital deployment and replenished our capital backlog,” said Sam Pollock, Chief Executive Officer of Brookfield Infrastructure. “We begin this year in a strong position to capitalize on attractive new investment opportunities amidst market uncertainty.”
For the year ended December 31, 2022, we reported net income attributable to the partnership of $0.4 billion compared to $1.1 billion for the prior year. Current year results benefited from contributions associated with recent acquisitions, organic growth across our base business and gains from our corporate foreign currency hedging programs. In the prior year, dispositions of several businesses contributed approximately $1.1 billion of gains, most notably our district energy platform.
Funds From Operations (or FFO) of $2.1 billion for the year reflects a 20% increase compared to 2021. Results benefited from organic growth for the year of 10%, capturing elevated inflation in the countries where we operate and volume growth across the majority of our critical infrastructure networks. During the year we commissioned over $1 billion of new capital projects that are now contributing to earnings, as well as deployed a further $1 billion into new acquisitions that favorably impacted results.
Segment Performance
The utilities segment generated FFO of $739 million, compared to $705 million in the prior year, an increase of 5%. This growth reflects an average inflation indexation of 8% that positively impacted almost our entire asset base, and the contribution associated with $485 million of capital commissioned into our rate base. Results also improved from the contribution of two recently completed Australian utility acquisitions. Partially offsetting these results were the impact of higher borrowing costs at our Brazilian utilities because of higher interest rates and incremental debt, as well as the sale of our North American district energy platform completed during 2021.
FFO for the transport segment was $794 million, compared to $701 million in the prior year, an increase of 13%. Results primarily benefited from inflationary tariff increases across all our businesses, higher volumes supported by strong economic activity surrounding our networks, and the commissioning of approximately $400 million in capital expansion projects during the year. Prior year results included a full contribution from our North American container terminal that we sold in June.
FFO for the midstream segment totaled $743 million, compared to $492 million in the previous year. This step-change is a function of the acquisition of our diversified Canadian midstream operation that we completed in the fourth quarter of 2021. Results for the base businesses improved due to elevated commodity prices, which led to increased utilization and higher market sensitive revenues.
The data segment generated FFO of $239 million, consistent with the prior year. Our underlying data businesses performed well as they continue to benefit from increasing customer utilization and network densification requirements. Growth was driven by additional points-of-presence and inflationary tariff escalators across our portfolio. These positive effects were partially offset by the impact of foreign exchange on our euro and Indian rupee denominated cash flows.
Update on Strategic Initiatives
Capital deployment in 2022 built on the record deployment of 2021. Over this two-year period, Brookfield Infrastructure deployed over $5 billion into new assets. During 2022, we secured $2.9 billion of investments across five transactions that are now closed and will begin contributing to results this year. We also entered into a partnership to construct a state-of-the-art semiconductor foundry in the U.S. This innovative transaction has added approximately $4 billion to our capital backlog and pioneered a new investment structure to deploy our large-scale and flexible capital.
With our 2022 deployment behind us, we have replenished our investment pipeline. In addition to evaluating several corporate carve outs, a large component of our investment pipeline is comprised of public-to-private opportunities.
On the capital recycling front, we are focused on closing the sale of our Indian toll road portfolio and the sale of our 50% owned freehold landlord port in Victoria, Australia. After the previous sale did not receive regulatory approval, we signed a binding agreement to sell the port to a reconstituted consortium for A$1.2 billion, which was at a 30x 2022 EBITDA multiple. Closing of these transactions is anticipated to occur in the first half of 2023, with net proceeds to BIP of approximately $260 million. We are also progressing several advanced stage sales processes and we recently launched the next round of asset sales that we expect will garner significant interest in light of the current economic environment. Together, these processes should generate over $2 billion of net proceeds for the partnership this year.
Distribution and Dividend Increase
The Board of Directors has declared a quarterly distribution in the amount of $0.3825 per unit, payable on March 31, 2023 to unitholders of record as at the close of business on February 28, 2023. This distribution represents a 6% increase compared to the prior year. The regular quarterly dividends on the Cumulative Class A Preferred Limited Partnership Units, Series 1, Series 3, Series 9, Series 11, Series 13 and Series 14 have also been declared, as well as the capital gains dividend for BIP Investment Corporation Senior Preferred Shares, Series 1. In conjunction with the Partnership’s distribution declaration, the Board of Directors of BIPC has declared an equivalent quarterly dividend of $0.3825 per share, also payable on March 31, 2023 to shareholders of record as at the close of business on February 28, 2023.
