Remember when Prosus started selling chunks of its stake in Delivery Hero (DH), a German food delivery giant, trying to meet an urgent deadline? Well… it may now want the European Union (EU) to pause that whole arrangement.
Let’s quickly reheat the tea ☕️: In 2025, Prosus, the investment holding company owned by South African conglomerate Naspers, announced plans to acquire Just Eat Takeaway.com, another major European food delivery platform. The EU approved the deal in August 2025 with a major condition that Prosus had to reduce its equity stake in Delivery Hero from 26.3% to a single-digit percentage within 12 months.
Prosus already holds stakes in Brazil’s iFood, India’s Swiggy, China’s Meituan, Norway’s Oda, and Germany’s Flink. The EU requested that Prosus reduce its stake as part of anti-trust conditions, concerned that Prosus may dominate Europe’s food and grocery delivery market.
To meet that condition, Prosus began selling stakes in DH. First, it sold a 4.5% stake to Uber, the ride-hailing company, in April. It offloaded another 5% to Aspex Management the following month.
After both deals, Prosus’ ownership in DH dropped to 17%, with even more sell-downs expected. However, it seems Prosus isn’t willing to go down further—at least not without pleading its case first. Bloomberg reported on Monday that the firm wants the EU to drop or soften that requirement.
What might have changed? It looks like Prosus is trying to protect its interest in what looks like a brewing takeover battle. In May, Uber made a takeover offer for DH, valuing the business at €10 billion ($11.6 billion), according to Bloomberg. However, DoorDash, a US competitor for DH and an adjacent rival of Uber (via Uber Eats), also wants its paws on the pie. It is considering a rival bid for parts of DH’s business. If a bidding war drives up Delivery Hero’s valuation, Prosus stands to lose significant upside by being forced to sell its remaining stake at today’s prices.
Why is Delivery Hero now a catch? The business has been quietly getting healthier. In 2025, it reported operating profitability of €903 million ($1 billion), up 30% year-on-year, alongside positive free cash flow. In 2026, it also struck a deal to offload its Taiwan-based foodpanda to Grab for $600 million, pending regulatory approval.
What happens now? The EU hasn’t responded, and there’s no guarantee regulators will budge, especially since Prosus has spent months complying already. But one thing is clear: what started as a forced sell-down has become a four-way corporate custody battle between Prosus, Uber, Aspex, and possibly DoorDash.