AD Ports Group reported a record second quarter, with net profit climbing 88 percent year over year to AED836 million ($227.6 million) as revenue rose 47 percent to AED7.08 billion ($1.9 billion). The results mark one of the strongest quarters yet for the Abu Dhabi-based ports and logistics operator, whose business spans terminals, shipping, and overland freight across the UAE and beyond.
Profit and margin growth
EBITDA rose 49 percent to AED1.74 billion, giving the group an EBITDA margin of 24.5 percent. Asset sales played a meaningful role in the quarter, contributing AED650 million to revenue and AED294 million to EBITDA. Excluding that boost, underlying operations still expanded, though the scale of the reported jump was helped by those disposals.
Debt and cash flow pressure
The growth came alongside rising debt. Net debt increased by AED1.27 billion during the quarter to AED22.73 billion, though net leverage actually improved slightly, easing to 3.7 times from 3.9 times at the end of the first quarter.
Free cash flow turned negative, at AED1.03 billion, largely because of the AED1.1 billion ($300 million) acquisition of an additional 30 percent stake in Global Feeder Shipping, completed on June 23 and raising AD Ports Group's ownership to 81 percent. Strip out that one deal, and free cash flow would have been positive at AED73 million for the quarter.
Rerouting cargo amid regional disruption
AD Ports Group adjusted its shipping and logistics network during the quarter, redeploying 27 container vessels and five bulk carriers to alternative corridors. It also added 400 trucks for overland routes and chartered six aircraft for air cargo operations by the reporting date, signalling a shift toward diversifying transport modes across its network, which touches key waypoints including the Strait of Hormuz, Fujairah Terminals, Khor Fakkan Port, Khalifa Port, and Jebel Ali Port.
Container feeder volumes, however, declined 11 percent year over year and 15 percent quarter over quarter, falling to 740,000 twenty-foot equivalent units. At the same time, average rates on Gulf and Indian subcontinent services jumped 96 percent annually and 103 percent from the first quarter, pointing to a market where fewer containers moved but at sharply higher prices.
Expansion through acquisitions
AD Ports Group is pressing ahead with international expansion. It has agreed to acquire Corredor Logística e Infraestrutura (CLI) in Brazil at an enterprise value of AED3.1 billion ($835 million), with the deal expected to close at the end of the third quarter of 2026. CLI handled 17 million tons of agricultural bulk cargo in 2025 and generated AED654 million in revenue and AED360 million in EBITDA that year.
Separately, the group agreed to acquire Germany's MBS Logistics for AED300 million (EUR70 million), a deal expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026. MBS Logistics generated AED870 million (EUR205 million) in revenue during 2025.
Together, the Global Feeder Shipping stake increase, the CLI purchase, and the MBS Logistics acquisition point to a group actively building out its footprint well beyond the UAE and GCC, even as it manages higher debt levels and swings in cash flow tied to that dealmaking.