DP World 2021 revenue up 26% on acquisitions, new biz

DP World reported a 26 percent increase in revenue to $10.8 billion for the year ended December 31, 2021, driven by acquisitions and new concessions including Angola, Unico and Transworld.

Adjusted EBITDA was up over 15 percent to $3.8 billion with adjusted EBITDA margin of 35.5 percent, an official statement said.

"We are delighted to report these strong set of results with adjusted EBITDA growing by $0.5 billion to a new record of $3.8 billion," says Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Chairman and CEO, DP World Group. "Importantly, growth was broad based across our terminals and logistics assets as we began to drive synergies across our portfolio. This significant growth once again demonstrates that our strategy to deliver integrated supply chain solutions will drive sustainable long-term returns.

"Furthermore, our recently announced acquisition of Imperial Logistics and Syncreon will bring value-add capabilities in high growth verticals and markets, which will allow us to offer a more compelling set of supply chain solutions. By leveraging our best-in-class infrastructure across inland logistics, ports & terminals, economic zones and marine logistics network, DP World aims to lower inefficiencies and provide improved connectivity in fast growing trade lanes such as Asia, Middle East & Africa.

"Importantly, we continue to make positive progress with our capital recycling program and this combined with the strong operational performance, leaves us well positioned to deliver on our 2022 combined (DP World and PFZW) leverage target of less than 4x Net Debt to adjusted EBITDA.

"Overall, we are pleased with the 2021 performance and looking ahead to 2022, we expect our portfolio to continue to deliver growth and, while the year has started encouragingly, we remain mindful that the geopolitical uncertainty, Covid-19 pandemic, continued supply chain disruptions and rising inflation could hinder the global economic recovery."

Strong performance, cash generation

Cash from operating activities increased over 27 percent to $3.7 billion ($2.9 billion in 2020).

"Terminals have remained open to service cargo owners despite challenges. DP World delivered strong operational performance with berth productivity maintained despite low schedule reliability."

Capital expenditure was $1.4 billion ($1.1 billion in 2020) invested across the existing portfolio. "Capital expenditure guidance for 2022 is for up to $1.4 billion with investments planned into UAE, Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), London Gateway (UK), Berbera (Somaliland), Sokhna (Egypt), Indonesia and Callao (Peru)."

Partnership with U.K. 's development finance Institution CDC and DP World investing $1 billion in ports and logistics across Africa will accelerate investment in Africa and remove trade inefficiencies. Pandemic, rising inflation and geopolitics continues to cause some uncertainty but medium-to-long term outlook remains positive, the statement said

Early last month, DP World had reported that its global portfolio of container terminals handled 77.9 million TEUs in 2021, an increase of over 9 percent. "The gross volume growth was broad based with India, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, Europe, Australia and Americas regions being the key growth drivers."