Uber has purchased an additional 4.5% stake in Delivery Hero from Prosus for €270 million ($318 million), taking its total holding in the Berlin-based food delivery group to approximately 7% and deepening a financial relationship with the parent company of two of its biggest competitors in the Gulf: Talabat and HungerStation.
Uber will pay €20 per share for roughly 13.6 million shares, a 22% premium to the one-month volume-weighted average price but slightly below Delivery Hero's closing price on the day of the announcement. Uber first acquired a roughly 2.5% stake in Delivery Hero as part of the Foodpanda Taiwan transaction in May 2024, paying €33 per share for newly issued stock. The latest purchase, at €20, represents a 39% decline from that entry price.
The sale isn’t discretionary on Prosus's part, as The European Commission’s approval of Prosus's €4.1 billion acquisition of Just Eat Takeaway.com in August 2025 was conditional on the Dutch investor significantly reducing its Delivery Hero shareholding.
The transaction takes Prosus's stake from 26.3% to 21.8%, but the company must reach single digits by August 2026, meaning substantially more Delivery Hero stock will need to find buyers in the coming months.
Activist investor Aspex Management, which holds roughly 9% of Delivery Hero, has separately been pushing for asset sales and a streamlined portfolio and has warned it could seek leadership changes if progress is not made.
The GCC angle matters because Delivery Hero's Middle Eastern operations have been the most profitable part of its global business for years. Talabat was taken public on the Dubai Financial Market in December 2024 in a $2 billion IPO at approximately $10 billion, but the stock has since fallen more than 56% from its listing price.
HungerStation, the Saudi market leader founded in Dammam by Ibrahim Al-Jassim (now CEO of q-commerce group Ninja), was fully acquired by Delivery Hero in July 2023 for $297 million and generated revenue exceeding €609 million in its last reported year.
As FWDstart reported in March, the sale of Foodpanda Taiwan to Grab for $600 million was the first concrete action under a strategic review, and the question of what that review means for Talabat and HungerStation becomes more pointed with Uber now on the register at 7%.
Uber also holds a minority stake in the Careem Super App after selling a 50.03% majority in the food, grocery and fintech business to e& for $400 million in 2023, retaining full ownership of Careem's ride-hailing operations.
Östberg called Uber's increased investment a "meaningful endorsement." Uber described it as "opportunistic."
With Prosus forced to sell more stock by August, Aspex pushing for change and DoorDash's $3.9 billion acquisition of Deliveroo last year showing that global delivery consolidation is already underway, Gulf food delivery ownership structures could shift materially in the coming months.
