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Prosus did not choose to sell. Brussels made that decision for it.
The Amsterdam-based technology investor, majority-owned by South African group Naspers, has agreed to sell 13.6 million shares in German food delivery company Delivery Hero to Uber Technologies at €20 per share, generating gross proceeds of roughly €270 million, equivalent to about $290 million. The price represents a 22% premium to Delivery Hero's one-month volume-weighted average share price as of mid-April.
The sale reduces Prosus's holding in Delivery Hero from 26.3% to 21.8% and makes Uber the fourth-largest shareholder in the Frankfurt-listed company, with a stake now worth more than $600 million according to Reuters calculations.
The transaction is not a strategic pivot. It is a regulatory one. The European Commission in August 2025 cleared Prosus's €4.1 billion acquisition of Just Eat Takeaway.com on condition that Prosus significantly reduce its shareholding in Delivery Hero. The concern was straightforward: owning close to 27% of Delivery Hero while simultaneously controlling all of Just Eat Takeaway put too much of Europe's food delivery market in one set of hands. Prosus completed the Just Eat Takeaway takeover in October 2025. The clock on the divestment condition started then.
Prosus said it remains committed to completing the sale of the remaining portion of its Delivery Hero stake within the required regulatory timeframe. The EU deadline falls on Aug. 12.
Not everyone is convinced the timing was right. Analysts at Jefferies called the move puzzling, noting that the €20-per-share price likely sits below Prosus's average entry level into Delivery Hero, and that with the EU deadline still months away, there was room to wait. Delivery Hero's ongoing strategic review, they argued, could have produced a better valuation. Prosus did not address that critique publicly.
Delivery Hero chief executive Niklas Oestberg offered a more optimistic read. Uber's increased position, he said, reflects confidence in the platform's strategy and long-term value creation. Delivery Hero shares rose nearly 3% following the announcement and are up about 22% across the week, though they remain down more than a fifth from the start of 2025.
Prosus is not finished unwinding its Delivery Hero exposure. Bloomberg reported in late March that the company had held preliminary discussions with Hong Kong-based Aspex Management, currently Delivery Hero's second-largest shareholder with a 9.2% stake, about the potential sale of a further 10% position.
Aspex has separately been pushing Delivery Hero's supervisory board to remove the company's chief executive and senior management, adding a layer of internal tension to what is already a complicated ownership picture.
Naspers, one of Africa's most valuable companies, holds most of its valuation through a large stake in Chinese technology giant Tencent. Its Prosus unit has been navigating a sustained restructuring of its food delivery bets, and the Delivery Hero divestment process is part of that broader reckoning. The EU did not invent the pressure. It just put a deadline on it.
