Dubai's DP World has arranged a 20-year, long-term financing with a group of international banks to fund its London Gateway deep-sea container port, it said on its website.

The world's third-largest ports operator said the financing for the development, which it expects to launch by the fourth quarter of 2013, will be an equal mix of debt and equity.

The debt draw down would be after the equity has been invested, likely by mid-2012, according to an investor presentation on its website, adding there would be a "significant upfront cost."

London Gateway is a staged 1.5 billion-pound ($2.3 billion) development embracing the container port itself as well as what is expected to be Europe's largest logistics park.

DP World said this week it would invest another $1 billion on the port over the next three years.   

The company's group capital expenditure programme was also revised higher to $2.7 billion to include additional London Gateway investment.

An additional $600 million was added, with the spending split between 2013 and 2014. The majority will come in 2013.

DP World is considered one of the more profitable units of debt-laden Dubai World, which reached a near $26 billion debt deal with creditors last year. - Reuters