By Linda Pasquini
(Reuters) - German online takeaway food company Delivery Hero on Thursday reported slightly lower-than-expected gross merchandise value (GMV) in 2022 and refrained from giving guidance on GMV for the current year, causing its shares to drop as much as 11%.
Chief Financial Officer Emmanuel Thomassin told Reuters it was too early to provide an outlook on GMV for the year given the current volatile environment.
"GMV guidance (for 2023) has not yet been provided, which the market was expecting," analysts at RBC said in a note.
After a boost to growth during the COVID-19 pandemic, Delivery Hero has focused on reaching long-awaited profitability as investor confidence in the rapidly expanding but mostly unprofitable sector started to wane.
The group confirmed it still expected a positive margin on adjusted core earnings (EBITDA) to GMV of over 0.5% in 2023.
Delivery Hero reported a GMV of 44.6 billion euros ($47.90 billion) for 2022, below the 44.87 billion euros estimated by analysts in a company-provided poll, citing foreign currency effects and its intensified focus on profitability.
Shares were down 4.4% to 51 euros at 1030 GMT, paring earlier losses.
When asked about potential cost cuts on the path to profits, Thomassin said the company's priority was optimizing revenues, adding he did not see Delivery Hero carrying out "massive" reductions such as other peers.
Rival Just Eat Takeaway NV in November said a reorganisation of its customer service operations could lead to 170 job losses globally.
In late January Spain's Glovo, part of Delivery Hero, said it planned to lay off 250 workers, or 6.5% of its global workforce, citing a drop in orders and inefficiencies after its rapid growth during COVID-19 pandemic.
($1 = 0.9310 euros)