Delivery Hero, the food delivery group headquartered in Germany, announced on Wednesday, 21 February, that discussions to divest a portion of its Foodpanda business in certain Southeast Asian markets have collapsed due to the inability to reach a conclusive agreement on deal terms.
According to Niklas Oestberg, the Chief Executive Officer of Delivery Hero, the choice to conclude the negotiations was made after “careful consideration”, considering the robust performance of the Asian business in the last quarters of the preceding year.
The strength of our APAC business has become evident during the last quarters as the region reached an inflection point in 2023. We believe the region remains strongly positioned to drive profitable growth at scale. The decision to terminate negotiations after months of discussions was taken after careful consideration.
Niklas Oestberg, Chief Executive Officer, Delivery Hero
Since the easing of pandemic-related lockdowns, Delivery Hero’s largest market in Asia has experienced a slowdown. In September, the company revealed discussions about selling the Foodpanda brand in certain Asian countries, although no potential buyers were specified.
Bloomberg reports that according to Oestberg, the recovery in Asia has been trailing about a year behind other regions in bouncing back from the post-Covid slump. However, he anticipates the growth pattern to normalise to pre-pandemic levels.
Oestberg also mentioned that now the business in Asia can operate without significantly weighing down on profitability.
