Delivery company talabat drives up solid Q1-2025 results - and with help from instashop

Dubai: The delivery services company talabat has confirmed an adjusted net income of $99 million for Q1-2025, a solid 24% increase from a year before. The total absorbs the impact of 'increased corporate income tax rates of 15% in the GCC markets', according to the DFM-listed company.

This comes of revenues of $846 million, a gain of 34% - and by 38% on constant currency terms.

talabat also confirmed that its acquisition of grocery-focused instashop was also helping out with the latest financials.

"Notably, our groceries and retail vertical contributed approximately one-third of GMV (gross merchandise value) when including instashop for the full quarter, reinforcing the opportunity in scaling this vertical further," said Tomaso Rodriguez, CEO of talabat.

"We also saw our most successful launch yet of talabat pro, our premium subscription loyalty programme, in Egypt, marking an important milestone and strengthening our offering in one of our fastest-growing markets."

talabat's first quarter results as well as that of Americana Restaurants earlier show consumer spending in the UAE and wider region is on the bounce. This week should also see Lulu Retail and Spinneys come up with their own numbers.

On DFM, the stock is trading at Dh1.38.

Instashop contributes

For talabat, the continuing integration of instashop is the other big plus. "As a leading grocery delivery e-marketplace in MENA, instashop is a strong strategic fit for talabat, and aligns closely with our ambition to expand and integrate our ecosystem," said Rodriguez.

"In a scale-driven business like ours, we expect to realise meaningful cost synergies as integration progresses over the next few quarters."

'Increased resilience'

talabat says the latest results were 'supported by increased resilience to the impact of Ramadan (in March)', which was in part due to the expanding grocery and retail vertical which 'benefits from consumer behaviour trends during this period'.

But the 'results reflected prior-year impacts related to ongoing geopolitical developments in the region, which had continued to weigh on performance during the comparative period', the company added.