Trade

DP World Trade Finance goes global after $400m debut year

February 20, 2024

A worker watches new ship-to-shore cranes arrive in Antwerp, Belgium. DP World handles 12% of global trade via its ports and logistics business

Platform matches borrowers and lenders
58,000 registered companies
SMEs ‘significant portion’ of transactions

DP World Trade Finance has revealed plans to expand into Turkey this year before opening in a number of other countries.

Working with Etihad Credit Insurance (ECI), the platform, which launched last year in the UAE, India and South Africa, has already financed more than $400 million of non-oil-based trade.

Giving borrowers access to finance, it helps lenders assess companies by providing data, visibility and transparency on transactions across the world.

This allows them to analyse areas of potential risk and identify the viability of new businesses.

Sinan Ozcan, senior executive officer at DP World Financial Services, previously said he would like to see $5 billion worth of direct and indirect trade financing by 2027.

“Hopefully we are at the final stages of our feasibility study and within this year certainly we plan to go live in Turkey,” he said.

Further countries being considered include the UK, US, Canada, Australia and Singapore.

There are 26 financiers on the platform with 58,000 registered companies.

Ozcan explained that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which have faced longstanding challenges in accessing trade finance, have led a “significant portion” of the transactions to date.

The trade finance gap – the disparity between requests and approvals for financing to support imports and exports – grew to a record $2.5 trillion worldwide in 2022 from $1.7 trillion two years prior, according to the Asian Development Bank.

SMEs make up around 95 percent of all companies operating in the UAE. They also employ 90 percent of the private sector and contribute more than 60 percent to the country’s GDP, according to the UAE government.

“Together with DP World Trade Finance we are boosting the export economy and adding security to the lending process,” Raja Al Mazrouei, chief executive officer at ECI, said.

DP World handles 12 percent of global trade via its ports and logistics business.