P&O owner posts huge dividend in year it sacked 800 ferry staff
THE Dubai-based owner of P&O Ferries has shelled out £1billion in dividends since 2017, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
This revelation follows the sudden firing of almost 800 P&O workers in March, which sparked a wave of anger and political scrutiny.
Company filings for the firm’s owner, DP World, reveal the extent of its lucrative payouts.
Most recently, it declared a £233million jackpot for shareholders for the previous financial year. That is despite P&O Ferries boss Peter Hebblethwaite claiming just months ago that the decision to illegally sack staff without notice was essential for ‘saving the business’.
The brutal decision to sack staff in March during an unscheduled video call led to P&O Ferries being hauled in front of MPs for questioning.
It also sparked criminal and civil investigations, although the Government’s Insolvency Service recently said ‘there was no realistic prospect of a conviction’.
Dismissed employees were controversially replaced with cheaper agency staff to cut costs in March
– a move that helped DP World’s profits soar to a record £603million for the first half of the year.
The RMT Union said last week that ‘throwing UK seafarers off P&O Ferries was always about increasing DP World’s profits’.
DP World’s ultimate owner is the Dubai ruling royal family, and its chair and chief executive is Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem. The company is now one of the biggest port operators in the world. DP World acquired P&O for £3.3billion in 2006, and then sold it to a separate state-owned entity soon after. The British shipping giant, once described by Margaret Thatcher as the ‘very fabric of the empire’, was repurchased by DP World for £322million in 2019.
Frances O’Grady, secretary general of the Trades Union Congress, has accused the Emirati firm of getting away ‘scotfree with behaving like corporate gangsters’. She said: ‘While DP World have been lining their shareholders’ pockets, they have shown utter contempt for hundreds of dedicated staff.’ A Government spokesperson said: ‘P&O Ferries not only acted callously, but failed to uphold the high standards we expect of British businesses.’ The business previously asked for a £150 million pandemic bailout from the Government after demand for its ferries collapsed. But the request was turned down after it was reported the firm had paid out £270million in dividends in 2020.
The company runs passenger routes between Dover and Calais, as well as between Hull and the Dutch port of Rotterdam, and services across the Irish Sea.
During parliamentary hearings, P&O Ferries admitted it had broken the law in failing to give notice of the firings, but said this was because no union would have accepted its new proposals. It also admitted that almost 200 of the staff it fired said they had lost possessions that were left on the ships on the day of the sackings.
Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem drew criticism in May after praising Hebblethwaite for the ‘amazing job’ he had done.
DP World said this weekend: ‘Over the past ten years, DP World has invested nearly £3billion, without taking a single penny in profit out of the UK.
‘In addition, DP World paid over £300million to purchase P&O Ferries and has since absorbed all of its losses.
‘The decision taken by P&O Ferries was the only way to secure the survival of the business.’