31/03/2026 07:35 AST
AD Ports Group, a leading global enabler of trade, industry and logistics solutions, has published its 2025 Annual Report, which chronicled a year of record revenue and profits.
The group has reported that its key trade corridors and geographies of operations were strengthened, optimised its asset portfolio and balance sheet, and invested in key port infrastructure, logistics capabilities, and maritime connectivity to power its profit-enhancing international expansion.
The report ''Curating Connectivity" highlights the Group's successful efforts at leveraging its growing presence along key international trade corridors and geographies of focus, such as in the UAE, Europe, Egypt, Pakistan, and Africa, to prime its integrated trade platforms for stronger performance and boost global connectivity, despite a challenging year marked by regional conflicts, tariffs, weakening global macroeconomic environment, and continued supply chain disruptions.
Revenue, profits
The Group's Ports, Economic Cities & Free Zones, and Maritime & Shipping Clusters were the key drivers to the record Group Revenue of Dh20.77 billion ($5.65 billion), and record total net profit of Dh2.07 billion ($563.6 million), up 20% and 16%, respectively, from 2024.
Revenue and Profits have risen more than five-fold since 2020, amid the Group's "intelligent internationalisation'' expansion strategy, underpinned by significant investments at home to strengthen Abu Dhabi's position as an international trade and industrial hub.
Expansion plans
During 2025, the Group announced plans with global shipping line partner CMA CGM Group to expand their joint CMA Terminals Khalifa Port container facility in Abu Dhabi, less than a year after it opened, amidst heavy demand.
Internationally, the Group purchased equity stakes in leading container terminal operators in Egypt and Syria, and announced plans with Egyptian partners to develop the 20 km2 KEZAD East Port Said Industrial and Logistics Zone at the Mediterranean mouth of the Suez Canal.
Scale, resilience
Mohamed Hassan Alsuwaidi, Chairman of AD Ports Group, said: "The Group's results reflect not only the scale and resilience of its diversified business model and integrated clusters, but also the growing confidence that customers, partners, and investors place in AD Ports Group as a long-term driver of sustainable growth. AD Ports Group's operational agility enables it to pivot profitably in volatile trading environments to produce consistent strong results through the cycle."
Captain Mohamed Juma Al Shamisi, Managing Director and Group CEO - AD Ports Group, said: "Our performance in 2025 reflected the disciplined execution, the growing maturity of our asset base, and the increasing strategic importance of our corridor-focused and regional strategy to customers and partners worldwide.
"We continued, guided by our wise leadership, to interconnect our ports, maritime services, logistics platforms, and economic zones into a coherent ecosystem that enables customers to move cargo, capital, and operations more efficiently along key trade corridors."
A significant achievement was the Group's ability to leverage its expanding global network presence to win increasing amounts of business from existing major customers, whilst expanding its client base on five continents.
Customer base up 20%
During 2025, the Group's customer base expanded by almost 20%, and spending by its top 10 customers increased by approximately 40%, demonstrating the growing appeal of the Group's end-to-end solutions.
Reflecting the Group's enhanced global role, Khalifa Port in 2025 was designated 39th in the Lloyd's List Top 100 Ports ranking of the world's largest container ports. The Group first entered the prestigious global list at 95th place in 2019.
During the year, the Group received a Guinness World RecordTM for deploying the most agentic AI agents, 205, across a global logistics company, and lowered the carbon intensity of its global operations, per unit of revenue, by 18% versus 2024, highlighting the ongoing success of its energy efficiency measures, low carbon investments, and the transition toward more electrified operations, especially in Ports and Maritime & Shipping.
Strategic direction
AD Ports Group showcased resilient growth fuelled by the operational ramp up of its main businesses, sustained organic investment in new infrastructure and services, and continued selective mergers and acquisitions activities.
Significantly, the Group streamlined and strengthened its balance sheet during the year through strong delivery from its core operations, and the launch of an active asset monetisation programme, which will raise Dh4.6 billion through the sale of land and warehouses, and the sale of a financial stake in NMDC, a global leader in engineering, procurement, construction, and marine dredging - subject to market conditions, regulatory approvals, and execution considerations.
The UAE's expansion of its non-oil economy, and global supply chain shifts, continued to create financial tailwinds that drove the Group's profitable global expansion.
The start of container feeder shipping services in West and East Africa, the commencement of multipurpose port terminal operations and an inland logistics business in Angola, and the ongoing expansion of the Group's port operations in Pakistan, where it initiated dredging work and partnered with Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC) to develop and operate a clean bulk handling and storage facility for agricultural goods at Karachi Port, were just three examples of Group efforts in 2025 to densify its key trade corridors.
Overall, 2025 was a year of consolidation and strategic refinement. In 2026, AD Ports Group remains focused on deepening its corridor-based model, integrating assets, and converting operational presence into sustainable long-term value.
The Group will focus on developing, upgrading, and starting commercial operations of its port terminals in the UAE, and in Safaga, Egypt, Karachi, Pakistan, and Latakia, Syria.
Market overview
Global shipping markets in 2025 operated against a backdrop of exceptional geopolitical, regulatory, and macroeconomic complexity. Trade flows were reshaped by ongoing sanctions regimes, heightened trade policy uncertainty, and persistent disruption to Red Sea and Suez Canal transits. The Group adjusted its operations to these challenges in alignment with applicable international and local regulations.
For diversified trade enablers such as AD Ports Group, market outcomes across shipping translated into differentiated opportunities across the wider ports, logistics, and economic cities platforms.
The UAE economy continued to provide a stable and supportive foundation for maritime and logistics activity. According to the Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE), the UAE recorded GDP growth of approximately 5% in 2025, driven by non-oil expansion in trade, logistics, manufacturing and services.
As a result, UAE non-oil foreign trade exceeded USD 1 trillion (AED 3.8 trillion) in 2025, a 26% increase over the previous year, achieving targets five years ahead of schedule, and demonstrating the accelerating momentum of the country's economic diversification strategy.
Global container trade growth, whilst important to AD Ports Group's operating model, is not the sole proxy for measuring the performance of the diversified Group as a whole, which is still adding capacity, ramping up operations, gaining operational efficiency, developing synergies across its businesses, operating in higher growth regions, and benefiting from the economic diversification strategy of the UAE and its major trading partners.
The 2025 Annual Report can be accessed through the AD Ports Group website www.adportsgroup.com/en.
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