Dubai-owned global marine terminal operator DP World has reported a 26.6 percent increase in net profits for 2013 to $604 million, compared with $555 million in 2012

“This performance has been achieved despite the group facing some challenging market conditions, said DP World Chairman Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem.

The board of DP World is now recommending a total dividend of $190.9 million, or 23 US cents per share.

A 10 percent increase in the ordinary dividend.

“Following the strong financial performance, combined with the realization of profit from the monetization of assets during the year, the board of DP World is recommending a total dividend of $190.9 million, or 23 US cents per share,” DP World said in a statement released during the press conference.

“This comprises a 10 percent increase in the ordinary dividend. The board is confident of the company’s ability to continue to generate cash and support our future growth whilst maintaining a consistent dividend payout,” he said.

DP World said market conditions in the Middle East, Europe and Africa region were mixed. Resilience in its UAE and Africa portfolio mitigated the weaker markets elsewhere. In fact, the UAE delivered another record year with throughput reaching 13.6 million TEU despite being capacity constrained at the start of the year.

Revenues from DP World’s port operations in Australia and the Americas improved by 7.5 percent last year to $594 million, the statement added.

“We have reported another set of robust financial results for 2013. We believe like-for-like revenue growth above 3.5 percent, 9.0 percent like-for-like EBITDA growth, 26.6 percent like-for-like EPS growth and a 47.6 percent like-for-like adjusted EBITDA margin is a resilient performance given some of the challenges that we have faced” said Mohammed Sharaf, DP World Group CEO.

While asked about company’s future plans in Saudi Arabia he told Arab News that the operations will continue as it is.

“Everything will be same, until we find something very attractive that fit to our business plan” he added.

“We remain on track and on budget with respect to our 2012-2014 $3.7 billion capital expenditure program. During 2013, we opened our new state of the art facility at London Gateway (UK) and Embraport (Brazil), while adding 1 million TEU of much needed new capacity in the UAE. We are encouraged by the performance of our new operations and in 2014 we look forward to adding further capacity at Jebel Ali (UAE) and Rotterdam (Netherlands).”

The opening of Jebel Ali’s Terminal 3 will add another 4 million TEU and take total capacity to 19 million TEU.

He said the company’s future lies mostly in fast-growing emerging markets. As it found out last year, however, not all of those markets are created equal in the global shipping business.