When the food-delivery boom cooled and capital stopped being cheap, the market began to see Delivery Hero not as a symbol of hyper-growth but as a company caught between ambition and gravity. “At NewsTrackerToday we’ve been warning for months that investor patience in this sector is evaporating faster than margins,” we note as an editorial team – and the latest developments confirm this more clearly than ever.
According to people familiar with the situation, several major shareholders – from Aspex Management to Broad Peak and PSquared – have begun applying direct pressure on the company, urging management to consider options ranging from selling individual businesses to exploring a full sale of the group. NewsTrackerToday analyst Liam Anderson points out that the stock’s 90% collapse from its peak has created “a credibility gap so large that investors no longer believe in passive waiting.”
The market’s reaction was immediate: shares jumped more than 13% on Friday, the strongest single-day gain in over four months. It was a rare moment when a mere hint of strategic change added more value to Delivery Hero than an entire year of earnings reports. But behind this sudden enthusiasm lies a deeper frustration: the company has failed to untangle its sprawling geography and turn its diverse portfolio into something resembling coherent value creation.
Attempts to dispose of assets – most notably the Taiwan business in a proposed deal with Uber – fell apart when regulators stepped in. Corporate strategy analyst Isabella Moretti notes that the failed sale “put Delivery Hero in an unusually exposed position, proving that exiting Asian markets at a fair valuation is far harder than management had believed.” She argues that a series of such missteps triggered the current activist pressure, as investors stopped trusting the leadership’s ability to streamline loss-making operations.
Additional uncertainty comes from Prosus, the company’s largest shareholder, which plans to dramatically reduce its 27.4% stake by 2026. At NewsTrackerToday we’ve emphasized that the retreat of Prosus removes a powerful political shield for the management team – and strengthens the hand of activist funds that previously lacked enough leverage.
The central piece of the puzzle is Delivery Hero’s Korean arm, Baedal Minjok, the market leader in South Korea and the company’s strongest asset. Insiders say players like Meituan, Grab, and Uber would line up if it were put on the block. Selling this division could become a turning point, injecting cash into the balance sheet and enabling share buybacks – yet it would also deprive Delivery Hero of its most profitable and stable operation.
The governance angle adds even more pressure. A shareholder group controlling more than 5% of the stock has the legal right to call an extraordinary meeting and challenge management’s mandate. Formally, such a vote is symbolic, but symbolically it carries the weight of a no-confidence signal. “If this step is taken, management effectively becomes caretakers rather than leaders,” we note at NewsTrackerToday.
Meanwhile, in the Gulf, Delivery Hero’s Middle Eastern unit Talabat continues to post healthy numbers – a contrast that only heightens investor frustration that the global structure appears to destroy value faster than it creates it.
Across the industry, consolidation is accelerating, capital is tightening, and the era of “growth at any cost” is fading. Winners are now those who can shrink intelligently, not only expand. In that context, the pressure on Delivery Hero is no anomaly – it is a sign of the European delivery market entering a new, disciplined phase.
As we conclude at News Tracker Today, the coming months will determine whether the company can present a credible strategy rather than yet another list of intentions. Investors will be watching for meaningful asset sales, reduced leverage, and capital discipline. Without these shifts, Delivery Hero risks becoming not the architect of its own turnaround – but the centerpiece of its own dismantling.
