Berlin, July 16 -- Uber agreed on Thursday to buy Germany's Delivery Hero at an equity value of $14.8 billion to create the largest food-delivery group outside China and stave off intensifying competition from U.S. and European rivals.

The acquisition advances the U.S. ride-hailing firm's efforts to build a global food-delivery business that can better compete with Just Eat, owned by Dutch group Prosus, and U.S. rival DoorDash, which has been expanding aggressively.

It is likely to face a complex regulatory process as the combination would create a platform spanning 99 countries with combined pro-forma gross merchandise value (GMV) of $236 billion in 2025, according to a statement by Delivery Hero.

By comparison, China's giant Meituan ...