Despite laudable efforts at transparency in its investor and public relations, there is still a fog of uncertainty surrounding DP World. This is not so much in terms of its own affairs – the ports and shipping business quoted on Nasdaq Dubai has arguably made more progress towards achieving international standards of corporate governance than any other UAE corporate.

It is the relationship with its parent, Dubai World, that confuses and perplexes. Since flotation in late 2007, just before world markets began to teeter towards the credit-crunch cliff, the parent company has continued to regard DP World as more or less its own private company, pulling in dividends but not really addressing the central concern for other shareholders: the destruction in investor value that has been its hallmark as a quoted company.

Floated at $1.30, the shares have never since traded at that level. After last week’s trading statement, they slipped back again to close at $0.50. Worth more than $20 billion on its IPO, DP World is now worth just over $8 billion (Dh29bn).

Beyond suggestions that the issue was overpriced in the first place, nobody can explain why DP World has performed so badly. Nobody seems to know what’s going on.

Last week, I had a very enjoyable dinner with a man who does. I will not tell you his name, because it would embarrass him and me, but he has more knowledge of the business world and the shipping industry than almost anybody else in the business. I share some of the insights gleaned over a splendid evening in downtown Dubai:

@Body-Bullets: DP World is seeing tangible signs that world trade is recovering from the doldrums of six months ago. There are still challenges this quarter, but it is looking considerably better than it did just a short while ago;

China is the engine of this recovery in world trade and DP World’s business. The massive government investment in domestic infrastructure is fuelling renewed global demand for raw materials;

DP World, and its parent, are still considering options to address the decline in shareholder value;

These options include listing the shares on another stock market to increase liquidity and trading volumes. The Dubai Financial Market is one possibility, London is another;

Dubai World would consider selling more of the 77 per cent of stock it still holds, but only when the price gets back to around the flotation level;

The approach by the Dubai private equity house Abraaj earlier this year was viewed as a “stalking horse” for another potential investor, with the Beijing sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corporation the leading candidate.

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