Naspers is spending €660m, or about R10.6bn, increasing its stake in one of Europe’s fastest-growing online food order and delivery businesses, Delivery Hero.
For the money, Naspers is buying an additional 13% of the business from Rocket Internet, increasing its shareholding to 23.6% and making it the largest single shareholder. The JSE-listed technology and media group is buying 22.4m shares at €29.50/share.
The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals. It will be funded from existing resources and is expected to close in the first quarter of 2018, Naspers said.
“Growing its position in online food ordering and delivery is consistent with Naspers’s strategy to invest in platforms with global potential that offer online marketplace services in high-growth markets,” it said in a statement to shareholders before markets opened in Johannesburg on Thursday.
The increased stake in Delivery Hero adds to the group’s investments in iFood in Latin America and Swiggy in India, it said.
Founded in February 2008 and listed in June 2017, Delivery Hero offers online food delivery services across more than 40 countries in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, Latin America, and the Asia-Pacific region. It also operates its own last-mile food delivery primarily in more than 50 high-density urban areas around the world.
“The online food delivery sector is still under-penetrated and growing rapidly across the world. Delivery Hero is already the leading online food ordering and delivery marketplace in most of the countries in which it operates and Naspers’s increased investment is due to its confidence in the long-term prospects of the company.”
Naspers said the potential in high-growth markets is likely to be higher than Delivery Hero has experienced in developed economies. — (c) 2017 NewsCentral Media