Dubai’s DP World to spend more after 14.9% 2017 profit rise

DP World, one of the world’s largest port operators, said on Thursday full-year profit rose 14.9 per cent in 2017 and that it would spend $1.4bn on capital expenditure this year.

Profit for the period attributable to owners of the company after separately disclosed items rose to $1.18bn in 2017 from $1.02bn in 2016, DP World said in a bourse statement.

Revenue increased 13.2 per cent to $4.7bn and the board recommended increasing the dividend by 7.9 per cent to $340.3m at 41 cents per share.

The Dubai state-owned firm last month said that container volumes across its global terminal had risen 10.1 per cent to 70.1 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU).

DP World said on Thursday that it had invested $1.09bn across its portfolio in 2017, less than the firm’s $1.2bn capital expenditure guidance for the year.

It expects to invest $1.4bn in 2018, mainly in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) where its flagship Jebel Ali Port is located, and in Ecuador, Somaliland, South Korea, Mozambique, and Egypt.

“We have made an encouraging start to the year with current trading in line with expectations,” said DP World chairman Sultan bin Sulayem. “As we look ahead into 2018, geopolitical headwinds in some regions pose a challenge but we expect to continue to grow ahead of the market and see increased contributions from our recent investments.”

This week, Somalia’s parliament voted to ban DP World from operating in the country and that its contract to work in the breakaway region of Somaliland was void.

It is unclear how Somalia’s federal government could enforce the ban given Somaliland’s semi-autonomous status.

That followed Djibouti’s government announcing in February that it was ending DP World’s contract to run its Doraleh Container Terminal. DP World has called the move illegal and said it would begun arbitration proceedings in the London Court of International Arbitration to resolve the matter.

Read: Djibouti says port will remain in state hands after ending DP World deal