Delivery Hero CEO On Why He Didn’t Bid For Wolt Enterprises
Delivery Hero CEO On Why He Didn’t Bid For Wolt Enterprises
(Bloomberg) -- Delivery Hero SE Chief Executive Officer Niklas Oestberg said he doesn’t expect much impact from the latest mega-deal in the food delivery industry, DoorDash Inc.’s acquisition of Finland’s Wolt Enterprises Oy for about 7 billion euros ($8.1 billion).
While Wolt operates in 23 countries, much of them in Europe, Berlin-based Delivery Hero has significant business outside the region in geographies including Asia and the Middle East.
“The impact on us is limited because Europe is still a small part of our business and in the markets where we do have overlap we are multiple times larger,” Oestberg said in an interview.
However, for food delivery companies more focused on Europe such as Just Eat Takeaway.com NV, Oestberg expects increased competition.
While Oestberg said his firm held talks with Wolt, Delivery Hero didn’t make a bid.
“It’s an exceptionally high price compared to any other M&A that has happened but I think for DoorDash it makes stragic sense,” he said, because it gives them a fast entry into Europe.
“We were obviously involved in the process, it’s just that DoorDash would be able to go way beyond what we could justify so we never made an offer.”
Oestberg’s comments came as Delivery Hero reported third-quarter financial data that showed sales topping estimates, and the company lifted its forecasts for this year. Delivery Hero shares rose as much as 4.6% in trading Thursday morning.
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