The cab and delivery service Uber becomes a new major shareholder in Delivery Hero and takes over the Berlin start-up's business in Taiwan.

Uber is paying 950 million dollars for Foodpanda Taiwan, as Delivery Hero announced on Tuesday. At the same time, the Americans are subscribing to a 300 million dollar (278 million euro) capital increase, thereby acquiring a stake of just under three percent in the delivery service. At 33 euros, the price for the 8.42 million new shares is 30 percent higher than the closing price of Delivery Hero shares on Monday.

According to the previous owner, Foodpanda Taiwan was operationally profitable in the twelve months to the end of March and achieved a gross merchandise value of the equivalent of 1.6 billion euros. The sale comes as a surprise. Delivery Hero has wanted to part with the Taiwan subsidiary for some time. In February, however, a magazine report stated that the sales negotiations with Uber had broken down due to different price expectations. For this reason, the company was also unable to get rid of its Southeast Asian business. It is considered a stumbling block for Delivery Hero's development due to weak growth rates.

(Report by Alexander Hübner, edited by Ralf Banser. If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and the economy) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets).