Dubai-based, marine terminal operator DP World has announced a successful financial year 2013, delivering a profit to owners before separately disclosed items of US$604 million.
This result is a fantastic increase from the $545 million in 2012, 26.6 percent growth year-on-year.
Revenue increased by 3.6 percent to a total of $3.073 million. This was driven by a 4.6 percent increase in container revenue per TEU. Non-container revenue increased a further 1.7 percent.
The gains were put down to substantial investment in DP World’s already large portfolio, by the opening of the London Gateway, Embraport in Brazil, and Jebel Ali, UAE.
The new investments, at a total cost of $1,063 million, are expected to draw in an extra three million TEU, on top of the one million already being generated at Jebel Ali.
EBITDA growth was nine percent, whilst adjusted EBITDA took in a total $1,414 million, at a margin of 46 percent.
Profit after separately disclosed items was a massive $640 million.
In his official statement, Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem put the success down to a focus on higher margin revenue and successfully minimising costs, marinating a strong balance sheet and carefully freeing up capital to reinvest it where the greatest returns are available.
He noted that DP World’s core strategy remains focused on four core values: driving long-term shareholder value, the creation of a satisfying and profitable customer experience; ensuring safety, security and efficiency; and finally the need to develop an environment that promotes learning and growth for its entire staff.
Looking forward, Sulayem hopes to see a return to normalised volume growth driven by the new investments, and a gradually improving macro environment.
By continuing on current successes, DP World are hoping for medium to long-term growth, with the hopes to meet an adjusted EBITDA margin of 50 percent and ROCE of 12 percent by 2020.
Sulayem said: “Our portfolio remains well positioned to capitalise on the significant medium to long-term growth potential of this industry due to our continued focus on the faster growing markets and stable origin and destination cargo. This positioning combined with our ability to add new capacity will enable us to deliver both earnings growth and shareholder value over the long term.”
DP World chief executive, Mohammad Sharaf continued: “We remain on track and on budget with respect to our 2012-2014 $3.7 billion capital expenditure programme. During 2013, we opened our new state of the art facility at London Gateway (UK) and Embraport (Brazil), while adding 1 million TEU of much needed new capacity in the UAE. We are encouraged by the performance of our new operations and in 2014 we look forward to adding further capacity at Jebel Ali (UAE) and Rotterdam (Netherlands). The opening of Jebel Ali’s Terminal 3 will add another 4 million TEU and take total capacity to 19 million TEU.
“We continue to manage our portfolio actively, having monetised some of our assets in Hong Kong this year and we expect to recycle this cash into projects that will return higher growth on our capital employed. Crucially our balance sheet remains strong, which provides us with the flexibility to invest in the future growth of our current portfolio, and to make new investments should the right opportunities arise, enhancing returns to shareholders over the medium term.”
The group was also pleased to announce their position as premier partner for Dubai’s Expo2020 bid.
