DP World, one of the more profitable assets of debt-laden Dubai World which owns 80 percent of the firm, said shareholders will vote on the matter on May 11.
If approved, each shareholder will get one new ordinary share with a nominal value of $2.00 for every 20 existing ordinary shares of $0.10 each.
Shares in DP World, which plans to seek a secondary London listing, closed at $0.64 on Nasdaq Dubai on Tuesday.
"The board believes that undertaking a one for 20 share consolidation will better position DP World's share price," DP World said in a statement.
The free float will remain unchanged at 19.55 percent.
The reverse stock split will reduce the number of shares to about 830 million from about 16.6 billion.
The port operator in late March posted a 35 percent increase in 2010 net profit and said it was on track to list on the London Stock Exchange later this year.