Uber in $15 billion deal for Delivery Hero to create global takeout giant
Berlin: Uber agreed on Thursday to buy Germany's Delivery Hero at an equity value of $14.8 billion to create the largest food-delivery group outside China
Berlin: Uber agreed on Thursday to buy Germany's Delivery Hero at an equity value of $14.8 billion to create the largest food-delivery group outside China and stave off intensifying competition from U.S. and European rivals. The acquisition advances the U.S. ride-hailing firm's efforts to build a global food-delivery business that can better compete with Just Eat, owned by Dutch group Prosus, and U.S. rival DoorDash, which has been expanding aggressively. It is likely to face a complex regulatory process as the combination would create a platform spanning 99 countries with combined pro-forma gross merchandise value (GMV) of $236 billion in 2025, according to a statement by Delivery Hero. By comparison, China's giant Meituan recorded a platform GMV of about 1.67 trillion yuan ($246.5 billion) last year. "Together, we'll nearly double the number of markets where we offer both mobility and delivery services," Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in the joint statement. 'Long slow march' to approval expected Uber, already Delivery Hero's top shareholder, has made the acquisition conditional on a minimum acceptance threshold of 50% plus one share.
The transaction, supported by Delivery Hero's management and supervisory board, is expected to be completed in the second half of next year. The €41.50 per-share offer represents a roughly 34% premium to Delivery Hero's three-month volume-weighted average share price, it said. It was 9% above Wednesday's close, but nearer 40% above the "undisturbed" price before any deal talk started. Shares in Delivery Hero were up about 1.2% at 1141 GMT, while Uber gained 1% in U.S. pre-market trading. The deal would expand Uber Eats across Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America but is expected to face antitrust scrutiny because of overlapping operations. To ease those concerns, Delivery Hero will sell operations in 14 markets to U.S. investment firm SSW Partners for about €1.4 billion. Major shareholder Prosus has also agreed to sell its nearly 17% stake, leaving little room for a rival bid. Jefferies analysts, however, said the expected timing of the deal's completion signalled a "long slow march" ahead. "The use of a financial investor to get ahead of the antitrust questions could prove successful, though the long timeline to completion (2H27) suggests it won't be a straightforward review," its analysts wrote.
Years of consolidation Food delivery outside China has evolved from a fragmented, pandemic-era battleground of regional players into a highly concentrated market dominated by a handful of global operators. Behind the consolidation is a slowdown in orders from the pandemic peaks as well as pressure to improve margins amid growing regulatory scrutiny over the treatment of gig workers. That has in recent years spurred Uber to buy Postmates; DoorDash to snap up Wolt and Deliveroo; Just Eat to merge with Takeaway.com and buy Grubhub; and Delivery Hero to expand through deals including Glovo and foodpanda. The latest deal leaves Uber and DoorDash as the dominant players. Excluding the overlapping markets, the move expands Uber's food-delivery network to 99 markets from 50. It also hands it a business with about $42 billion in gross bookings last year. Delivery Hero, which also owns Talabat and PedidosYa, had rejected an earlier Uber approach disclosed in late May that valued it at about €10 billion, or €33 a share. Anticipation of an improved bid sent its shares to near €36 in the following weeks.
The BriefWire