Dubai: An 18 per cent growth in Middle East, Europe and Africa region helped DP World to record 12 per cent growth in its profits before tax to $310 million (Dh1.13 billion) during the first half of this year, the company said.
The Arab Spring did not dent its performance in the region. “This is simply because our presence is not very strong in these countries. However, we have seen good performance in Algeria which is not affected by this [Arab Spring],” Sultan Ahmad Bin Sulayem, DP World Chairman said in a conference call, responding to a question from the Gulf News.
Mohammed Sharaf, DP World’s Group chief executive officer, responded, saying, “However, our operations in Egypt’s Sukhna port has shown strong performance during this quarter.”
DP World’s revenues increased 10 per cent to $1.52 billion while earnings before interest, tax, debts and amortisation (EBITDA) rose 11 per cent to $672 million, the company said in a statement. DP World handled 7.5 per cent more containers than during the same period last year.
“The past six months has been a challenging period for the global economy,” Bin Sulayem said.
“Taking this into account, it is very encouraging that DP World has been able to show good profit growth across its global portfolio, led by its key markets of Africa, the Middle East and South America.”
The company’s net cash from operating activities of $518 million while it maintained a balance sheet strength with leverage (net debt to EBITDA) of 2.7 times.
During this period, DP World invested $260 million in long-term assets.
EBITDA margin increased to 43.9 per cent as its terminals continued to improve efficiencies and productivity.
“These were combined with effective cost management to deliver an underlying growth in EBITDA of 11 per cent,” said a DP World spokesperson.
The Middle East, Europe and Africa region delivered an excellent performance with an 18 per cent improvement in EBITDA to $477 million and further improvement in EBITDA margin to 46.3 per cent.
In April DP World fully repaid and cancelled its $3 billion syndicated loan facility due in October 2012 using cash balances. DP World maintains a healthy balance sheet and low leverage of 2.7 times. In addition, the company has access to additional cash resources through a new $1 billion syndicated bank loan which is currently undrawn. This provides them with the flexibility to continue to invest in quality long-term assets for the future growth of our portfolio.
“We continue to outperform industry volume growth; our balance sheet remains strong and allows us to invest in the future growth of our portfolio,” Mohammad Sharaf said.
Yuvraj Narain, chief financial officer of DP World, said: “An 11 per cent growth in EBIDTA on 7.5 per cent growth in container volume reflects operational efficiencies across our portfolio.”
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DP World expands Jebel Ali port capacity to 19 million TEUs
Jebel Ali port will add five million 20-feet-equivalent units (TEUs) to the existing capacity to 19 million by 2014, a top official said.
“We are one million TEUs that will be completed by next April while a further four million TEUs will be added in Terminal 3 in Jebel Ali by 2014,” Sultan Ahmad said.
