1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to more DW sites
Live TV
Latest audioLatest videos
In focus
German coalition collapseDonald TrumpCOP29
Business

Germany's Delivery Hero plans flotation

June 6, 2017

The Berlin-headquartered start-up says its public listing will help it dominate the growing online meal delivery market. The food ordering platform features more than 150,000 restaurants in 40 countries.

https://p.dw.com/p/2eCBc
Delivery Hero Plattform Essensbestellungen
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Kalaene

Amid an already competitive food delivery market, Delivery Hero said on Tuesday it plans to raise around 450 million euros ($506 million) from an initial public offering (IPO) on the Frankfurt and Luxembourg stock exchanges.

The float could value the company at between 3.5 billion and 4 billion euros, according to the Reuters news agency.

IPO sometime this year

Its flotation would happen "in the coming months," a statement from the firm said, and would help it fend off aggressive expansion plans from the likes of Uber and Amazon.

"Going public and listing our shares on the stock market will further enable us to develop the company and provide us with additional capital to expand our leadership positions in the online food ordering and delivery market," said Niklas Östberg, Delivery Hero's CEO.

Read more: Berlin start-up launches portal to stop you wasting money

The IPO would be the fourth by a major online food delivery firm in recent years, following GrubHub, Just Eat and Takeaway.com.

Investors to partially cash out

Some shares held by existing investors are expected to be sold at the same time, Reuters reported, citing people familiar with the deal.

Delivery Hero is 36 percent owned by Berlin start-up incubator Rocket Internet, which is itself listed in Frankfurt.

Deutschland | Lieferdienste | Niklas Östberg von Delivery Hero
CEO Niklas Östberg says the IPO will give Delivery Hero more flexibility as it takes on stiff competitionImage: Delivery Hero

The platform faces major competition from Britain's Deliveroo and fellow Berlin start-up Foodora as well as new market entrants.

The food ordering platform has seen strong growth since its foundation in 2011. In 2016, revenues reached 347 million euros, up 71 percent on the previous year.

But the firm still announced an adjusted operating or underlying loss of 116 million euros last year.

Sterling revenue growth

Delivery Hero says its Q1 2017 revenue is up 68 percent to 121 million compared to the same period last year.

Read more: New Zealand claims first pizza delivery by drone

The delivery platform is present in some 40 markets in Europe, advertises some 150,000 food and beverage outlets and employs 6,000 people.

The firm charges restaurants a commission of about 1.60 euros - 10-11 percent - on each order, which is lower than many of its competitors.

In several markets, Delivery Hero operates its own delivery service for restaurants that do not normally offer delivery.

South African media and e-commerce firm Naspers took a 10 percent stake in the firm last month.

Brexit spurs British startups to look to Berlin

mm/hg (AFP, dpa, Reuters)