AD Ports Group Q1 Revenue Reaches $1.25 Billion

AD Ports Group, an enabler of integrated trade, transport, industry, and logistics solutions, on Friday said that its revenue grew by an impressive 18% y-o-y to reach $1.25 billion for Q1 of 2025 with ports, economic cities & free zones, and maritime & shipping clusters being key drivers behind the strong performance.

Announcing its financial results for the first quarter of this year, the company said that the Group’s EBITDA amounted to $310 million during the first quarter, translating into a 9% y-o-y growth, driven by a 17% y-o-y increase in ports, 10% y-o-y in maritime & shipping, and 7% y-o-y in economic cities & free zones (Group EBITDA Margin stood at 24.7% in Q1 of 2025).

The total net profit soared 16% y-o-y to $126.33 million, mainly driven by the operating performance and with marginal increase in total debt and continued strong liquidity position, the net debt/EBITDA was relatively stable at 3.4x as of Q1 of 2025, vs. 3.3x at end of 2024.

The capital expenditure (Capex) for the first quarter of the year reached $259.74 million, with majority of cash outlays going into economic cities & free zones, ports (including $49.55 million going into new and renewal of ports concessions), and maritime & shipping assets.

The operating cash flow, which amounted to $197.35 million in Q1 of 2025 compared with $212.64 million in the same period in 2024, was primarily impacted by the timing of collections, and thus unfavourable working capital changes. As a result, Free Cash Flow to the Firm (FCFF) was slightly negative for the quarter at – $47.1 million.

Key Business Developments

Some of the key business developments of the Group are entering a 51%-owned JV to develop a greenfield grain terminal at Kuryk Port in Kazakhstan, starting port and logistics operations at Luanda Port in Angola.

It has also signed a 50-year land lease agreement with Al Ain Mills for a 50,000 sq. m. grain storage and processing facility at Khalifa Port South Quay, which will boast a storage capacity of approximately 300,000 metric tonnes.

It has brought in CMA CGM Group with 49% ownership in the JV that will develop and operate New East Mole Multipurpose Terminal at the Port of Pointe Noire in the Republic of Congo- Brazzaville, the 30-year extendable concession that AD Ports Group secured in June 2023.

The Group has secured a contract to manage and operate the 1.3 million sq. m. Al Madouneh Customs Centre in Amman, Jordan, formed a 70%-owned JV with Arab Shipbuilding & Repair Yard Company (ASRY) for the provision of marine services in Bahrain, signed a 50-year land lease agreement with ETG Bio Green Polymer for a 22,000 sq. m. compostable polymer resin factory in KEZAD.

It has also launched a joint venture – Noatum Maritime (60%) and Erkport (40%) – to facilitate global Ro-Ro and vehicle transport. Noatum Maritime and Erkport will jointly deploy Container Ro-Ro (ConRo), Pure Car and Truck Carrier (PCTC), and Ro-Ro vessels.  The JV will start with 11 vessels on five services.

The Group started operations of Al Faya Dry Port facility, a custom-bound inland container depot strategically located at the border of Dubai to serve all Northern emirates, which aims to drive Khalifa Port. Al Faya Dry Port will serve CMA CGM as its first key client but Khalifa Port, such as COSCO and MSC.