According to a recent industry survey by Drewry, AD Ports Group has made its debut in the global top 20 rankings of world port operators.
Ranked 19th globally, this achievement highlights the expanding influence of AD Ports Group’s ports business, which has grown significantly following new operating concessions and the 2023 acquisition of Noatum, a company managing 16 terminals in Spain.
AD Ports Group now oversees 33 terminals across eight countries, including the UAE, Spain and Pakistan. Additional terminals are set to begin operations in the UAE and under concession agreements in the Republic of Congo, Egypt, and Angola. Drewry’s latest ranking, featured in its 2024/2025 annual industry report, assessed operators based on container throughput, using data from 2022/2023.
In 2023, AD Ports Group reported a container throughput of 4.91 million TEUs, marking a 13% increase year-on-year. The total volume handled at its UAE terminals rose by 6% to 4.6 million TEUs, which included six months of contributions from Noatum following its integration into the Group.
The Ports Cluster was a significant contributor, accounting for 16% of consolidated revenue and 23% of adjusted EBITDA in 2023 and continued its strong growth trajectory in 2024, with revenue in the second quarter rising by 83% year-on-year, and 13% on a like-for-like basis, reaching AE$563 million (US$153 million). This growth was also driven by managing four berths at Karachi Port, Pakistan’s key port, under a 50-year concession agreement with Karachi Gateway Terminal Limited (KGTL).
The acquisition of Noatum and the new Karachi concession increased AD Ports Group’s global terminal portfolio capacity by 14% to 9.7 million TEUs in 2023. AD Ports Group is focusing on multipurpose terminals as a strategy to tap into new markets, with a geographic emphasis on the Indian Subcontinent, Red Sea, Mediterranean, South Asia, and Africa.
In 2023 and the first half of 2024, AD Ports Group signed agreements to develop and operate multi-purpose terminals in Safaga (Egypt), Pointe Noire (Republic of Congo), and Luanda (Angola). Preliminary agreements were also signed for developing terminals at East Port Said and Sokhna in Egypt, as well as in Chittagong, Bangladesh.
In June 2024, the East Africa Gateway Limited, a joint venture led by AD Ports Group and Adani, acquired a 95% stake in Tanzania International Container Terminal Services (TICTS), which operates berths 8-11 at Dar es Salaam Port in Tanzania. These developments are positioning AD Ports Group to expand its terminal portfolio capacity by over 60%, reaching 14.5 million TEUs over the next five years.
