Quarterly report: Delivery Hero reports loss despite order record

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Delivery Hero headquarters in Berlin: deep in the red

The order record during the corona pandemic has brought the food delivery service Delivery Hero deep red. The bottom line was a loss of around 443 million euros in the first half of the year, more than twice as much as a year earlier, as the company, which has been listed in the Dax since this week, announced on Thursday in Berlin.

The news was badly received at the stock exchange. Shortly after the start of trading, the Delivery Hero share lost 1.55 percent to 93.84 euros and was thus bottom of the Dax. The regions in which the new delivery subsidiary Instashop is active have great potential for growth, noted a stock trader. The acquisition makes strategic sense. However, investors may find the purchase price too high.

Delivery Hero shares have risen by around a third since the turn of the year. Over the next twelve months, its rate has more than doubled. The delivery service on the stock exchange is now valued at around 19 billion euros. The restrictions caused by the coronavirus pandemic also made the company financially difficult, on the other hand, customers ordered more meals than ever before on the Group's portals.

As previously reported, the company's segment sales grew by around 94 percent to almost 1.13 billion euros in the first half of the year thanks to the order boom in the corona crisis. Management expects business growth to continue in the second half of the year. CEO Niklas Östberg had already raised his sales forecast for 2020 to 2.6 to 2.8 billion euros at the end of July.

Expansion continues

However, the company founded in 2011 is still in the red. This not only applies to ongoing business, but also to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and special items (adjusted Ebitda). This should be minus 14 to minus 18 percent of sales in the current year. That means: the higher the revenues, the higher the absolute operating loss.

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Notwithstanding this, Delivery Hero has now made it into the German leading index Dax. There the company took the place of the payment processor Wirecard, which had gone bankrupt as a result of a billions in accounting scandal.

Delivery Hero operates order platforms for food from local suppliers in more than 40 countries and employs 25,000 people, including around 1,300 in Berlin. The company mediates delivery services between restaurants and their customers. Most of the money comes from commissions paid by the participating restaurants. However, Delivery Hero also operates its own delivery services and large kitchens.

Delivery Hero had sold its German business (Foodora, Lieferheld, Pizza.de) to the Dutch competitor Takeaway.com - today Just Eat Takeaway (Lieferando) - last year. The Berliners are currently well represented in markets in Asia, the Middle East and North Africa.

mik / dpa