BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - The food delivery service Delivery Hero now wants to keep its business in Southeast Asia after all. Talks with a potential buyer have been broken off, the company announced on Wednesday evening. "The decision to break off negotiations after months has been made after careful consideration," said CEO Niklas Östberg according to the press release. Investors were disappointed. The share price plummeted by a good nine percent on Thursday morning. A recovery of the share price is now a distant prospect. Recently, speculation about the failure of the Foodpanda sale had already weighed on the share price.

A week ago, CFO Emmanuel Thomassin told the financial news agency dpa-AFX that he saw no time pressure on the sale of the business. "We don't have to sell Foodpanda, even if that would be an advantage for our liquidity". The manager was also responding to investor concerns that Delivery Hero's cash flow was not sufficient to service debts from its own resources.

Exactly who is said to have had their eye on Foodpanda remained unclear until the end. The obvious choice is the top dog Grab, which offers a wide range of services in the region: Customers can have restaurant meals and supermarket orders delivered to their homes via an app, book parcel deliveries and also order cab rides. Even when the first rumors of a merger with competitor GoTo emerged, Delivery Hero remained confident. The group operates Foodpanda in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos and the Philippines.

The Group was not really able to get off to a flying start in the region anyway. Delivery Hero withdrew from Vietnam with its Baemin brand at the beginning of December. In terms of sales, Asia is by far Delivery Hero's most important segment. However, growth is clearly lagging behind that of the other regions: while all other segments recorded double-digit percentage growth in the fourth quarter, sales in Asia stagnated.

One reason for the slow growth in the Far East is the tough competition, which meant that Delivery Hero had to spend correspondingly high amounts on advertising. In the industry, companies usually entice new customers with discounts. However, advertising often proved to be counterproductive in the past: in South Korea in particular, Delivery Hero struggled with particularly resourceful customers who kept registering and were therefore able to order food at particularly low prices. This is no longer possible.

However, Delivery Hero does not want to completely bury its intention to sell. The company remains open to talks. "However, Delivery Hero will only continue negotiations where there is a high probability that value can be created for our shareholders," it said. The Management Board also intends to examine "strategic alternatives"./ngu/mne/jha/