Rocket Internet Sits on $3.3 Billion Cash Pile After IPOs

(Bloomberg) -- Rocket Internet SE is still sitting on a sizable cash pile after it generated a profit of 548 million euros ($605 million) in the first half of the year, after several of its largest startup investments sold shares to the public.

Shares in the German startup incubator rose as much as 3.3% in early Frankfurt trading. The company said in a statement Thursday that it now expects earnings, stripping out interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, to rise this year, but did not put a number on the improvement.

Global Fashion Group SA -- the Zalando SE clone -- listed in Frankfurt in July, while African e-commerce platform Jumia Technologies AG sold shares in New York in April. Home decor and furniture startups Home24 SE and Westwing Group AG listed last year.

Including share sales of food delivery company Delivery Hero SE and meal-kit startup HelloFresh SE, Rocket has around 3 billion euros in cash as of August.

"We have more capital than ideas,” said Chief Executive Officer Oliver Samwer at Rocket’s annual general meeting in June.

"We continue to pursue our core strategy of operationally developing new business models in the tech space,” Samwer said, adding that the company has now incubated 15 new internet-based business models since the start of last year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Stefan Nicola in Berlin at snicola2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Giles Turner at gturner35@bloomberg.net, Chris Reiter

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