Who Owns P&O Ferries?

P&O Ferries is owned by DP World, the ports and logistics group owned by the government of Dubai. It has been since 2019. Companies House records P&O FERRIES LIMITED (00237626), incorporated 2 March 1929, held by P&O Ferries Division Holdings Ltd — under the significant influence or control condition, with no shareholding band at all. The register preserves the company’s former names, including Townsend Car Ferries. Ownership verified 6 September 2026.

Who owns P and O Ferries today?

The operating company is P&O FERRIES LIMITED (00237626), incorporated 2 March 1929 and registered at Ashford, Kent.

Its person with significant control is P&O Ferries Division Holdings Ltd (06038090), recorded as having significant influence or control — and notably not as owning 75% of the shares, which is how almost every parent company on this site is recorded.

That is an unusual filing for a wholly owned subsidiary. It establishes that the holding company directs P&O Ferries and, on its face, nothing about what it owns.

Above the UK chain sits DP World of Dubai, and above that the government of Dubai. The register does not name either.

Ultimate parent and corporate structure

DP World is one of the world’s largest port operators, owned by Dubai World, an investment vehicle of the emirate’s government. It was listed on Nasdaq Dubai and taken fully private again in 2020.

So P&O Ferries is state-owned — by a foreign state. That places it alongside the sovereign holdings this site documents at Heathrow, where Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Singapore hold nearly half between them, and at PSG.

The distinction from a private owner matters here more than usual, and the 2022 events show why: a company answerable to a government rather than to shareholders faces a different kind of pressure when it acts controversially, and a different kind of consequence.

DP World also owns the London Gateway port and Southampton container terminal, so the same owner holds a ferry operator and two of Britain’s largest ports.

Major shareholders or controlling persons

No individual owns P&O Ferries. The chain runs to the Dubai government, and there is no shareholder register in the British sense to consult.

The event that defined the company’s recent history was not an ownership change. On 17 March 2022, P&O Ferries dismissed 786 crew without notice or consultation, by pre-recorded video message, and replaced them with lower-paid agency workers. The chief executive told a parliamentary committee that the company had knowingly broken the law on consultation.

The ownership is directly relevant to what followed. The government condemned the sackings and legislated afterwards on seafarers’ wages — but P&O’s owner was a foreign state’s investment vehicle, not a listed company answerable to institutional shareholders who might have forced a change. There was no shareholder revolt available, because there were no shareholders.

Official records and evidence

The company numbers, the 2 March 1929 incorporation and the PSC entry are Companies House records for 00237626 and can be checked directly.

Two limits. The PSC condition recorded is significant influence or control with no shareholding band, so the register does not establish the size of the holding — only that control exists. And the register names UK holding companies and stops well before Dubai, so DP World’s ownership rests on its own disclosures and the 2019 transaction announcements rather than on any British filing.

Seafarer employment and minimum wage obligations are matters for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and the legislation passed after 2022, not for Companies House, which does not verify most filed information.

Ownership history and changes

The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company was founded in 1837 and was, for a century and a half, one of the great British shipping companies.

• 1929 — the company now called P&O Ferries Limited is incorporated on 2 March.
• 1987 — P&O acquires Townsend Thoresen after the Herald of Free Enterprise disaster, and the register still carries Townsend Car Ferries Limited as a former name in the group.
• 1998–2002 — the Dover–Calais routes are run as P&O Stena Line, a joint venture; that name too survives on the register.
• 2006 — DP World buys the P&O group, in a deal that caused a political row in the United States over Dubai control of American ports.
• 2019 — DP World buys the ferries business back into direct ownership.
• March 2022 — the mass dismissals.

The name history on the register is unusually rich. Townsend Car Ferries and P&O Stena Line are both preserved as previous names — a joint venture and an acquired rival, both absorbed, both legible on Companies House decades later.

Related companies and brands

DP World owns P&O Ferries, P&O Ferrymasters, London Gateway and Southampton container terminal.

P&O Cruises is not in the group. It was separated in 2000 and belongs to Carnival Corporation — so two well-known British travel brands share a name, a history and no owner. A passenger booking a P&O cruise and a driver boarding a P&O ferry are dealing with entirely different companies.

P&O Ferries is not connected to DFDS, Brittany Ferries, Stena Line or Irish Ferries. Stena was a joint venture partner until 2002 and is separately Swedish-owned; Brittany Ferries is a French co-operative, ultimately owned by farmers — the most unusual ownership structure in the sector.