DP World Announces Resilient Financial Results for 2020

DP World Limited has announced robust financial results for the year ended 31 December 2020. On a reported basis, revenue grew 11.0% to $8,533 million and adjusted EBITDA grew 0.4% to $3,319 million with adjusted EBITDA margin of 38.9%.

Revenue at $8,533 million grew 11% on reported basis supported by acquisitions and full year contribution from Topaz Energy & Marine and P&O Ferries.

Maritime and Logistics revenue went up 33.2% while like-for-like revenue decreased by 7% and down 3.2% excluding one-off land sale in 2019. Like-for-like containerised revenue was up 1.8%.

Adjusted EBITDA at $3,319 million grew 0.4% and EBITDA margin for the year stood at 38.9%.

Like-for-like adjusted EBITDA margin was 42.1% which declined slightly due to a change in mix with the consolidation of lower margin Logistics businesses.

Cash from operating activities increased 17.8% to $2,901 million in 2020 ($2,462 million in 2019) as the company focused on managing costs to preserve cash.

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Meanwhile, Ports & Terminals announced new investment in Senegal, Angola and Indonesia.

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Overall portfolio has delivered better than expected performance in 2020.

DP World Group Chairman and CEO, Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, commented: "We are delighted that our portfolio has performed better than expected and, in a year like no other, to deliver flat volumes, stable EBITDA and free-cashflow growth is a remarkable achievement.

"The container industry has outperformed the gloomy double digit decline that some predicted at the start of the pandemic, which illustrates the resilience of the market and DP World has outperformed the industry once again.

"This demonstrates that we are in the right locations and a focus on origin and destination cargo will continue to deliver the right balance between growth and resilience.

"We have continued to make progress on our strategy to enable trade and deliver an integrated supply chain solution to cargo owners. We have focused our efforts on digitizing logistics and developed solutions for several verticals.

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"We are pleased to state that cargo owners have responded positively, and we are now delivering efficient solutions to our customers, which bodes well for the future.

"In 2020, DP World de-listed its equity from the stock exchange and returned to private ownership. Our ability to adapt and change has been the key to our success, and we must continue to evolve for continued growth.

"Looking ahead, we will continue to be selective on new investments and focus on the integration of our recent acquisitions to drive synergies, containing costs to protect profitability and managing growth capex to preserve cashflow.

"We remain strongly committed to our 2022 combined (DP World and PFZW) leverage target of less than 4x Net Debt to EBITDA (Pre IFRS16).

"Overall, we are pleased that our business has performed better than expected in 2020 and, while we remain cautious on the outlook given the continued issues surrounding the pandemic, geopolitical uncertainty in some parts of the world and the ongoing trade war, we are encouraged by the start to trading in 2021 and remain positive on the medium to long-term outlook for the industry and our business."

Read More: DP World Reports Flat Growth for 2020