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BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - The food delivery service Delivery Hero wants to drive its growth with more fees for partner restaurants and end customers. For the current year, the Management Board is now targeting higher sales growth than previously communicated. "Our focus remains on the interplay of growth and profitability with the result of a positive cash flow," said outgoing CFO Emmanuel Thomassin in a statement on Thursday. Delivery Hero shares rose following the presentation of the quarterly figures: They gained 10 percent in morning trading.

This means that the share price has risen by a good fifth since the turn of the year. However, investors who have held the shares for three years have seen their value fall by around 77 percent. This is because Delivery Hero shares cost significantly more at the height of the coronavirus pandemic. At the beginning of 2021, investors paid a good EUR 145 for a single share, whereas today it is just over EUR 30. With the end of the pandemic and questions arising about the financing of the business, the share price stumbled. However, the shares have recovered somewhat since February.

The management sees additional fees as a reason for optimism in order to drive up sales. Delivery Hero not only demands additional payments from its partner restaurants, for example in order to be better placed in the app. Consumers are also expected to dig deeper into their pockets than if they call the pizzeria or Asian restaurant around the corner directly. In addition to delivery fees and subscription costs, delivery services now also charge "service fees" to cover their own costs and transaction fees for certain payment methods such as PayPal.

Jefferies analyst Giles Thorne commented in an initial reaction that the monetization of the business has made significant progress.

In the first quarter, revenue adjusted for discount expenses jumped by a good fifth to just under three billion euros, as the MDax-listed company announced in Berlin on Thursday. For 2024, the company now expects total segment sales to grow by 18 to 21 percent adjusted for exchange rate effects, instead of the previous 15 to 17 percent.

Gross merchandise value (GMV) increased by eight percent to almost twelve billion euros in the first quarter. Exchange rate effects are excluded in both cases. Delivery Hero performed better than analysts had expected on average for both key figures.

Group CEO Niklas Östberg emphasized the strategy of "profitable growth". Accordingly, the manager is taking further action and making short work of unprofitable businesses. The loss-making Dmarts department stores, which are intended to supply customers with food in a short space of time, have shrunk again to 895. They are expected to reach the adjusted operating profit threshold by the end of 2024. The Glovo business in Spain, which has been heavily criticized in the past, is expected to contribute a positive adjusted result in the second half of the year.

The profitability efforts were also evident in the past year: Delivery Hero was able to significantly reduce its loss in 2023, as was also announced on Thursday. While the loss in 2022 was just under three billion euros, the figure has now been reduced to around 2.3 billion euros./ngu/lew/mis