Another year of profitable growth

Bringing some cheer in this time of recession, DP World has announced strong results for the 12 months to December 31, 2008, building on the excellent performance in the first half and delivering another year of solid profitable growth, Exim News Service said.
These results are truly extraordinary. Profit after tax (PAT) for continuing operations increased by a whopping 48 per cent to $ 621 million ($ 420 million in 2007), while EBITDA increased by 22 per cent to $ 1,340 million ($ 1,100 million), with margins at 40.8 per cent.
There was a strong revenue growth of 20 per cent to $ 3,283 million ($ 2,731 million).
Some of the other highlights of the results are as follows:
Net cash from operating activities increased by 12 per cent to $ 1,069 million ($ 955 million).
Pro forma earnings per share increased 53 per cent to 3.45 cents (2.26 cents).
Dividend was 0.69 cents per share.
Besides, the consolidated throughput grew by 15 per cent to 27.7 million TEUs (24 million TEUs).
Commented Mr Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Chairman of DP World, "2008 was another year of excellent performance for DP World where our focus on the faster growing emerging markets and origin and destination cargo allowed us to once again outperform the market, delivering results ahead of expectations. Profit after tax was in excess of $ 600 million and cash generation in excess of $ 1 billion. This excellent performance in 2008 leaves us in a strong financial position to meet the challenges that lie ahead in 2009.
The volume deceleration we saw in the last quarter of 2008 has continued into early 2009 and shows little sign of easing in the foreseeable future. Falling utilisation rates across container terminals globally mean the demand for new capacity in the short-term is much diminished. Taking into account our existing pipeline of committed capacity, the company has decided to defer much of our planned new capacity until such time as higher utilisation rates return.
Over the next few months, the Board will evaluate all available options to address its continued disappointment with the market’s valuation of the company.
We continue to remain confident of the long-term prospects for the container port industry and DP World’s leading global position within it. Once the current challenging market eases, we believe DP World will emerge financially strong and well positioned to continue to deliver profitable growth.
Mr Mohammed Sharaf, Chief Executive of DP World, said, "DP World has delivered another year of strong results, growing revenue, EBITDA and profit. However, the overall performance was impacted by a weaker fourth quarter as volumes declined across most regions in response to the more challenging macroeconomic environment.
This volume decline has continued into 2009 and in the first two months of the year we have seen an average decline of 8 per cent in consolidated volume across the group relative to the same period last year, with most of the developed regions reporting double digit declines in volumes. The UAE remains a major exception as performance continues to be less impacted than other regions.
With the continuation of unpredictable trends in global trade, it is too early to comment with any certainty on the volume and earnings outcome for 2009. However, as we have seen in the first two months of the year, our business model has the flexibility to adapt to these turbulent market conditions and we are very focused on cost containment, maximising cash generation and minimising the impact on margins and profitability.

Source: Transportweekly