Welcome to the Delivery Hero Q3 2026 trading update. Today's presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. For those of you who have joined the Zoom webinar, you can use the raise hand function at the bottom of your Zoom screen at any time to join the queue to ask a question, and you will be called upon during the Q&A session. If you've dialed in, please press star nine to enter the queue. If you want to withdraw your question, please lower your hand using the raise hand function in the Zoom app or, via telephone, press star nine. I'll now hand over to Andrea Ferraz to begin the presentation.
Thank you and good morning, everyone, and welcome to Delivery Hero's Q3 2026 trading update call. My name is Andrea Ferraz, and I head investor relations and communications at Delivery Hero. With me today are Niklas Östberg, our CEO, and Marie-Anne Popp, our CFO. Together, they will present the key highlights of a strong third quarter. As you know, we are currently in the acceptance period of Uber's takeover offer, which ends 5th of November. For questions about the offer, please refer to Uber's offer documents and to the joint reasoned statement published by our management and supervisory boards on the 2nd of September and supplemented yesterday. Today's call will focus on Delivery Hero's operating performance. I also need to highlight that today's call contains forward-looking statements which are subject to risks and uncertainties. Unless stated otherwise, all growth rates are year-on-year and on a like-for-like basis.
With that, over to you, Niklas.
Thank you, and hey, everyone. Q3 was an exceptionally strong quarter. Growth accelerated for the fourth quarter in a row, allowing us to deliver a record 1 billion orders in a single quarter. GMV grew 14%. A year ago, we were growing at 7%. Since then, every single quarter has been faster than the one before. Revenue grew even faster at 22%. The key contributors of the faster growth were quick commerce, which delivered GMV growth of 39% on a like-for-like basis, and ad tech revenue. The message is simple: Our Everyday App strategy is delivering. Our investments in our customer proposition are translating into record orders and accelerating GMV growth. What's behind this? We are focused on one thing and one thing only, and that is to make the customer experience better, and it's not just about improving restaurants' delivery.
It's about getting customers to engage with us every day across different verticals. We do that in three different ways. First, more choice. We want to be the app customers open for their everyday needs, not just for dinner. That is why we keep expanding quick commerce. Our own stores, Dmarts, are key to our quick commerce growth as they enable customers who already use us for food to now also use us for their weekly shopping. As we prove that we can be their reliable everyday partner, customers use us for more verticals and more food. Second, more value to our customers. We make it more affordable to order with us and to order more often. Our subscription programs give members lower delivery fees and exclusive deals in exchange for their loyalty, and subscribers now account for more than half of our GMV.
We also work with restaurants and retail partners to fund deals for customers, so these customers get better prices without us simply spending more on marketing. Third, better service. Customers expect their orders to arrive fast and right. We benchmark ourselves against competitors market by market, and in almost all of them, we are fast or faster than our competitors. Riders spend less time waiting, so food arrives sooner. When choice, value, and service improve together, customers order more often and stay with us longer. That is what you see in our growth in this quarter. Part of what enables us to improve the customer experience is how fast we're improving our product, and this year, we are improving it at a much faster pace with new features contributing much more incremental GMV than last year's feature releases. A key reason is, of course, AI.
Co-development and our in-house autonomous coding agent, HeroGen, helps us ship much faster today than a year ago. Shipping faster means a better product. A better product brings more orders. So this sharp focus on customer experience is what has enabled us to deliver close to EUR 1 billion of incremental quarterly revenue over the last year with no incremental marketing spend. Also here, we see big upside from AI. We acquire more customers than ever at a lower cost. Customers are choosing us because the product is better, not because we're spending more on customer vouchers, and they come back more often. With improvement in lifetime value and reduction in acquisition cost, we can start to invest a bit more in marketing at good returns. Looking forward, our priorities have not changed. We build depth in every market through the Everyday App.
That means more choice, more value, and better service with continued investment in quick commerce. Because we're looking to drive growth that is sustainable, that means continue to invest to ensure that we have the best customer experience, we will do so in a disciplined way. We will also remain focused on delivering higher free cash flow per share. Finally, a quick update on the Uber takeover offer. We are currently in the acceptance period, which ends on 5th November at midnight Central European Time. Shareholders who would like to tender need to make sure that they do so through their custodian bank before the deadline. The additional acceptance period is expected to start on 11th November and run until 24th of November. Regulatory reviews are ongoing and still expect allow for closing in the second half of 2H27.
Until then, we continue to operate as an independent company, and our team stays focused on our customers. They do that very successfully as today's results show. Before handing off to Marie-Anne, I would also like to take the opportunity to update you on the sale of our business in Taiwan. The local regulatory authority did not approve the transaction, and it has now been terminated. As a result, we will be receiving the agreed break-fee from Grab. With that, I hand over to Marie-Anne.
Thank you, Niklas, and hello, everyone. Let me start with the group. In Q3, we delivered more than 1 billion orders in the quarter for the first time, a great milestone to cross. Order growth accelerated to 11%, up from 8% a year ago. GMV reached EUR 13.9 billion, up 14% like-for-like, with larger average basket sizes supported by faster quick commerce growth. In reported currency, GMV was also up 14%, so currency is no longer a drag at group level. Revenue reached EUR 4.3 billion, up 22% like-for-like, and 23% in reported currency. Revenue continues to grow faster than GMV, thanks to quick commerce and ad tech. Now focusing on our platform business, which includes all GMV transacted through our apps and websites. GMV grew 14% to EUR 13.9 billion, and revenue grew 17% to EUR 3.3 billion.
Growth was strong across all our regions with similar drivers as we execute on our Everyday App strategy consistently across brands. The drivers, as explained by Niklas, have primarily included strong growth of quick commerce, high take-up of our subscription programs which drive loyalty and orders, and overall improvements in the customer experience resulting from our investments in the last year. Revenue and Integrated Verticals, mainly our own stores, Dmarts, grew 43% to EUR 1.2 billion. This was another record quarter for Dmart GMV growth. We see strong adoption in Korea through subscriber offers, more capacity in MENA, and continued strength in Latin America. A denser store network means more orders and faster delivery, with same-store sales continuing to be the largest driver of growth. This brings me to our outlook. Given the strong momentum, we are raising our guidance for the full year again.
GMV growth is now expected at 10%-12% like-for-like, up from 9%-11% like-for-like. Revenue growth is now expected at 18%-20% like-for-like, up from 17%-19% like-for-like. Adjusted EBITDA is now expected at EUR 980 million to EUR 1.02 billion, up from EUR 960 million to EUR 1 billion. Free cash flow before extraordinary items now expected to be more than EUR 300 million, up from more than EUR 250 million. The larger increase here reflects better working capital performance on the back of stronger GMV growth. To sum up, our investments in the customer experience and Everyday App are paying off with faster growth and better profitability. We see further opportunity ahead and will keep investing with discipline to deepen our presence in each market and become the everyday choice for more customers.
We will provide further guidance for 2027 with our full year 2026 results. We are now looking forward to taking your questions. Operator, please go ahead.
Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin our Q&A session. For those of you who have joined via the Zoom webinar, if you have a question, we ask that you please use the raise hand function at the bottom of your Zoom screen. Once called upon, please unmute your audio and ask your question. If you have dialed in, please press star nine to enter the queue and star six to unmute once called upon. Our first question comes from Casey McGunty with UBS. Please unmute to ask your question.
Hi there. Thank you for taking my question. Just on Taiwan, obviously following the TFTC's decision on the Grab transaction, while I appreciate Taiwan is not an explicit condition to the Uber deal closing, what, if any, read across do you see for the broader regulatory process? Is there anything that could change your confidence around the expected 2H27 deal close in general? Thanks.
Hi, Casey. I think a quick answer on that is no. We have not seen any change, and I think in many places, I do not know, we have rather met positive feedback. So yeah, no, I do not think it has changed anything in our view.
Got it. Thank you.
Thanks.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Andrew Ross with Barclays Capital. Please unmute to ask your question.
Hey, guys. I've got three questions, if that's okay. The first one is back on Taiwan. Just to clarify your comments in the opening remarks, it sounds like you're not planning on appealing that ruling and you'll take the break-fee. Just want to confirm that that is correct. The second one, also on Taiwan. Whilst we understand that the offer is not conditional on Taiwan, I guess clearly there is potentially an antitrust situation that could emerge there. Does it change anything for you? What's the state of play of Taiwan now? Are you actively looking for other options there or not? Then the third question is on antitrust. Niklas, you made a comment just there in your answer to the first question that so far feedback has been positive.
Hoping you could elaborate a bit on that and give us an update in the key jurisdictions that do need approval for the offer to become conditional. I'm curious as to what kind of level of involvement you guys are actually having in that process, or whether it's more down to Uber. Thanks.
Yeah. It's not our decision to appeal or not appeal. It's Grab's decision, and there will be no appeal. There will be a break-fee that is going to be paid very shortly. On state of play and condition present, Taiwan, look, there's not much I can say. We will have to now evaluate what it means, the Taiwan decline. I think we have a good business there. I don't think there are any plans, or there are no plans at this point in time. But of course, that can always change. When it comes to antitrust, look, we are not the one doing the filings, so I don't know, the best would be to speak to Uber or S&W. They will have, I don't know, way more answers to this.
But from what I understand, there haven't been any negative comments or remarks from as far as that we have heard. Yeah. I think overall, you should speak to Uber and S&W, but I haven't heard anything negative.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Wolfgang Specht with Joh. Berenberg, Gossler & Co. Please unmute to ask your question.
Yes, hello. Good afternoon. Three additional ones from my side. To my knowledge, there has never been the breakup fee issued. Can you give us at least an indication if this is relevant, or is it a rather low amount, as you were expecting that the Taiwan deal would go through? The second one is on the development on the European division still growing somewhat below the group. Are there any particular geographies to mention which are currently slowing down the development in Europe? The third question would be on litigations. We have not heard a lot from your litigation cases recently. Can you give us a quick update how the important cases, namely in Spain and Italy, are going?
Right. I cannot comment on the break-fee. It is part of NDA with Grab. But of course, you will see it in our full-year financial results. But appropriate deal protection, I would say. When it comes to Europe, we do have a lot of changes or had a lot of changes during the last year or so when it comes to employment of a rider. In some cases, moved from employment of freelance versus employment of riders. And of course, that drives cost for consumers. It is a much higher cost for them to carry. It is a worse experience for customers. So that, of course, puts some weight into the growth of those countries that have had that change. We do have a few more of those cases in Europe as we transition into PWD, so the transposition of the PWD.
That is, in most cases, you can still operate with freelance. In some cases, you may not be able to. And in cases where you operate freelance, you might have to change the way you are operating with freelance. It might make limiting a little bit ability and flexibility there. So some of those things have had a slight constraint on growth, given that it is worse than the service and the cost for consumers. But I think the transposition is more or less fully completed end of the year. In many cases, we have already changed our model to be compliant with new legislation and so on. When it comes to litigations, you mentioned Spain, Italy, not much new on Spain. I do not know. Continue to proceed on to Supreme Court, most likely. And yeah, that takes time.
When it comes to Italy, we have worked very closely with the appointee there, and I think that has been a good discussion. We have done a few improvements that they have requested, and I hope that we will be. We are business as usual, but even more business as usual in the short term. Discussions have been good so far. I hope that helps.
Thanks a lot.
Thanks.
Thank you. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please use the raise hand feature. Once you have been invited to ask your question, please unmute. Our next question comes from Jürgen Kolb with Kepler Cheuvreux. Please unmute to ask your question.
Thanks very much indeed. Most of the questions have been asked. One is still remaining here, and that is on South Korea. I think you mentioned that you experienced healthy growth in Q3. I was wondering if you could maybe elaborate a little bit about, A, the situation in South Korea overall and what you call healthy growth in this respect. Thank you.
Hey, Jürgen. Yeah, a good try. Yes, overall, we are happy. Korea is a big part of our Asia segments. Of course, it gives you a direction at least. Yeah, it is a stable, healthy growth given the size of the business. Of course, it is a much more mature business than we have in the rest of Delivery Hero. So of course, we will have lower growth rate there versus in Latin America or Middle East and so on. But overall, we are happy. Stable growth, solid. I still think there are a lot of opportunities there. It is an area, it is a country where I think we will invest a little bit more, given the opportunity and landscape we have there, to making sure that we always have the best customer experience in the market at any point in time. Yeah, healthy is different per market.
I think in many markets, we say healthy is 20%-30%, as I said, in a large market that is so mature, where acquisitions are much smaller proportion of your growth, and it is rather about repeat, then of course, it reduces and limits the growth. Yeah.
It's a single-digit number.
Understood.
That is healthy in that market.
Understood. One last one on your comments regarding marketing. Did I interpret your comment correctly that going forward, you think at least to maybe increase your marketing expense ratio, or was that a wrong conclusion?
Yeah, I think we have proven that we can acquire customer at a lower cost, and we have proven that we can increase the frequency of those customers, and we have proven that we can get great economics of our customers. Of course, you can see that summarized both in our growth as well as our increased guidance and profitability and cash flow. That means that we're getting better return, and that give us opportunity to invest more where we see that opportunity. So there is a possibility that we might not keep it flat. We might take it up a little bit next year, given the better returns that we see in customers.
Got it. Thanks very much, Niklas.
Thank you very much.
This concludes the Q&A session. I will now hand back to Niklas Östberg for closing remarks.
Thank you everyone for your questions. Let me leave you with just one point, and that is, of course, that our Everyday App strategy is working. Customers are using us for more than the daily needs, and they are coming back more often. Our growth comes from a continuous improvement in our product, and we are confident in the rest of the year. That is why we have raised our guidance again. As we look forward, we will continue to invest with discipline to deepen our presence in each market and become the everyday choice for more customers. Finally, I want to thank all our teams around the world. This is a fast-changing environment for all of us, and they have stayed focused on what matters most, and that is, of course, our customers. So together with our riders and partners, they are delivering these results.
Thank everyone, and for everyone else, have a good day.
This concludes today's call. Thank you everyone for joining. You may now disconnect.