(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) DP World on Wednesday said profit before tax climbed 12 per cent to $310 million in first half of this year due to strong growth in its key markets of Middle East, Africa and South America.
The world's third-largest port operator said revenues for the six months ended June 30 rose to $1.53 billion from $1.5 billion in the corresponding period last year. The company's revenues from Middle East, Africa and Europe operations rose 14 per cent to $1 billion, but revenues from its operations in Asia-Pacific, Indian subcontinent and Australia dropped in the first half.
"The past six months has been a challenging period for the global economy. 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," Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, chairman of DP World, said in an e-mailed statement to Khaleej Times.
Dubai-based port operator handled 7.5 per cent more containers in first half despite challenging global macroeconomic environment as it shifted its focus to emerging markets to help offset a possible economic slowdown in global economy. It handled 28.2 million twenty-foot equivalent container units (TEUs) at its more than 60 terminals compared with 26.2 million TEUs in the same period last year.
"In a tougher operating environment, we have reported a good set of results for the first six months, with profit and margin up on the same period last year," chief executive officer Mohammed Sharaf said in a statement. "We continue to outperform industry volume growth; our balance sheet remains strong and allows us to invest in the future growth of our portfolio," he added.
Looking across the DP World's regional portfolio, Middle East, Europe and Africa region delivered an excellent performance with an 18 per cent improvement in EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) to $477 million and further improvement in EBITDA margin to 46.3 per cent. The Asia Pacific and Indian Subcontinent region reported EBITDA of $159 million in the first six months and record EBITDA margins of 68.4 per cent.
"Our terminals in the Australia and Americas region delivered a strong revenue performance in the first six months of 2012 reporting revenue of $266 million, or 12 per cent, growth on an underlying basis and EBITDA of $77 million."
DP World is working on 11 new developments and expansions around the world including the London Gateway deep-sea port, which will open in the fourth quarter of 2013. It handled nearly 55 million TEUs across its portfolio from the Americas to Asia.
With a pipeline of expansion and development projects in key growth markets including India, China and the Middle East, the total container handling capacity is expected to rise to around 103 million TEUs by 2020.
In a conference call following the earnings announcement, the company's chief financial officer said Yuvraj Narayan said DP World has no immediate plans to raise funds. "We have enough cash reserve to finance our projects," Narayan said.
"DP World remains highly cash generative with net cash from operations of $518 million. This cash supports our continued investment in our global portfolio. We remain focused on delivering the right capacity in the right locations to meet the capacity requirements of our customers who are changing trade routes and increasing the use of ultra large container ships (ULCS)."
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 very 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 us with the flexibility to continue to invest in quality long-term assets for the future growth of our portfolio," the company said.
DP World shares closed unchanged at $10.2 on Nasdaq Dubai on Wednesday. The shares rose 5.8 per cent this year so far.
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.