Uber singles out Middle East dark stores in Delivery Hero takeover

“Delivery Hero has done a really good job with their dark store footprint in the Middle East,” Uber chief financial officer Balaji Krishnamurthy said on Wednesday’s third-quarter earnings call, singling out the regional grocery network as an attraction of Uber’s proposed $14.8 billion takeover of the German group.

The acquisition would give Uber control of Talabat and HungerStation, alongside a fulfilment operation that chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi said offers a “better handle on inventory”.

Khosrowshahi said Delivery Hero’s quick-commerce business had reached breakeven and was growing attractively, without providing a separate profitability figure for its Middle Eastern operations. Krishnamurthy said Uber would assess dark stores market by market, according to local conditions and returns on assets, while continuing to work with grocery retailers elsewhere.

Delivery Hero opened close to 90 dark stores during 2026, taking its global network to approximately 900 by its October trading update. Quick-commerce GMV, which measures customer spending through its platforms, rose 39% year on year on a like-for-like basis in the third quarter and accounted for 19% of group GMV.

Quick commerce was the fastest-growing business area in every region, although those figures include both company-operated stores and orders from retail partners.

In Saudi, HungerStation chief executive Ali Aldamanhori said in September that its quick-commerce business, including groceries and pharmacies, was growing by more than 100% annually. Speaking to Argaam, he said customer engagement had nearly doubled over two years as the platform expanded beyond restaurant delivery, while ordering frequency still trailed Gulf markets such as Kuwait.

FWDstart reported last week that Saudi Arabia became Delivery Hero’s largest individual MENA market by order volume for the first time in the third quarter. Regional GMV growth accelerated to 20.6%, with MENA accounting for almost a third of the group’s transaction value.

The region contributed approximately 43.5% of Delivery Hero’s increase in GMV in reported euros, according to our calculations, making it the largest regional contributor to that growth.

Our analysis of Delivery Hero’s first-half results found that MENA generated roughly 59% of group adjusted EBITDA from 31.5% of GMV. Regional adjusted EBITDA nevertheless declined slightly year on year, despite higher spending, and the third-quarter update supplied no regional profit breakdown.

Operating dark stores requires spending on inventory, warehouse staffing and premises that a marketplace working with existing retailers doesn’t bear directly. More frequent orders help spread fixed operating costs across a larger volume of transactions, making repeat purchasing particularly valuable.

As FWDstart examined in May, Talabat and HungerStation have been using subscriptions to encourage repeat purchasing while building advertising businesses around that activity. Grocery gives members another reason to order throughout the week and consumer brands another place to reach them.

Subscribers generated 51% of Delivery Hero’s third-quarter GMV, up from 38% a year earlier. Customers using multiple categories of service accounted for 62%, although the company didn’t disclose equivalent figures for its individual Middle Eastern platforms.

Under the takeover agreement, Uber would acquire HungerStation and Delivery Hero’s controlling interest in Talabat, which operates across eight MENA markets. Businesses in 14 other markets would transfer to SSW Partners, including Yemeksepeti in Türkiye. Delivery Hero includes Türkiye in its MENA reporting, meaning the regional financial figures cover a larger portfolio than Uber would retain.

Uber has already regained control of Careem Technologies, whose services include food and grocery delivery. Acquiring Talabat would place overlapping regional operations under the same ultimate owner, but executives disclosed no plan on Wednesday to combine their brands or fulfilment networks.

The takeover remains subject to regulatory approvals and other conditions, with completion expected in the second half of 2027. Talabat said when the offer was announced that its strategy, operations, leadership and Dubai listing status were unchanged.