Talabat's board has proposed a share buyback programme of up to five per cent of the company's issued share capital, the Dubai-listed delivery platform said on Wednesday, as the stock continues to trade well below its December 2024 IPO price.
The buyback, subject to shareholder approval at the company's annual general meeting on April 13, would be executed over up to two years through open-market transactions on the Dubai Financial Market and funded from existing cash reserves and free cash flow. The board has also mandated management to appoint a liquidity provider to improve order book depth and trading conditions for the stock.
Talabat priced its IPO at AED 1.60 per share in what was the largest global technology listing of 2024, raising $2 billion. The stock is currently trading at around AED 0.70, a decline of more than 56 per cent, and briefly touched an all-time low of AED 0.627 on March 5.
Separately, shareholders will vote at the AGM on a final dividend of $219 million (3.450 fils per share) for the second half of 2025. If approved, total dividends for the year would reach $421 million, approximately 90 per cent of reported net income. Cumulative dividends since the IPO now stand at $531 million.
The decline in Talabat's share price reflects a combination of factors. The company's Q4 2025 results, reported on February 13, showed 21 per cent year-on-year GMV growth and 26 per cent revenue growth, with Talabat Pro subscribers tripling to a quarter of the customer base and Talabat Mart now accounting for 15 per cent of GMV. But 2026 guidance projected net income of $280 to $310 million, below several analyst estimates, after a year of heavy investment in dark stores, subscriber acquisition and market defence across the company's eight MENA markets.
The stock also took a hit from the broader regional selloff triggered by the Iranian strikes on the UAE in early March. The DFM closed for two days on March 2 and 3, the first wartime suspension of trading in the exchange's history, and reopened to a 4.71 per cent single-session drop across the benchmark index.
Intensifying competition from well-funded entrants in food and grocery delivery across the region has added further pressure. The competitive dynamics are part of what drove Talabat's elevated spending in 2025 and have weighed on investor sentiment around the company's near-term margin trajectory.
"This share buyback program reflects our confidence in talabat's future and our belief that the current market valuation and share price do not fully reflect the long-term strength of our platform," CEO Toon Gyssels said. "The buyback, combined with our dividend policy, underscores our commitment to delivering attractive total returns to shareholders while continuing to invest strategically in the growth of our food, grocery and retail categories."
The buyback programme would be one of the first by a recently listed technology company on the DFM and follows a period of broader weakness across Gulf equity markets since the onset of the regional conflict.
