BERLIN (Reuters) - German e-commerce investor Rocket Internet (DE:RKET) on Thursday reported progress in cutting losses at its main start-ups with three remaining on track to generate profits by the end of 2017.
Rocket Internet, which has seen its shares slide on concerns about mounting losses, highlighted smaller losses at its emerging market ecommerce firm Global Fashion Group (GFG) and at home furnishings site Westwing.
It announced detailed results for GFG last week. Earlier this month, Rocket reported a first-half consolidated loss of 617 million euros (530.09 million pounds), mainly due to impairments on its GFG stake. [L8N1BD5O7]
On Thursday, it said the aggregate adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) margin of its top start-ups rose to minus 17 percent in the first half of 2016 from minus 32 percent a year earlier.
Revenue rose 32 percent to 1.043 billion euros ($1.17 billion), slightly slower than the 34 percent gain achieved in the first quarter.
Ingredients delivery firm HelloFresh, Rocket's biggest investment, led growth with a 159 percent advance, though that was less than the 211 percent achieved in the first quarter.
Rocket also said it had expanded its existing convertible buyback programme, saying it may spend an additional 85 million euros on convertible buybacks by Sept. 30, 2017.
