Delivery Hero is yielding to pressure from major shareholder Aspex and has announced a leadership transition. The food delivery giant stated on Tuesday that Niklas Östberg will step down from his position on March 31, 2027. During the transition period, he will lead the previously announced 'review of strategic options'. The Supervisory Board aims to appoint a successor by the end of the year. The company's shares pared their losses following the news, trading down 0.7 percent.

Aspex welcomed the planned management change and the potential strategic pivot. The asset manager has been critical of Delivery Hero's low profitability compared to its industry peers. Consequently, in addition to the replacement of co-founder Östberg, it has called for a withdrawal from entire regions. It considers the sale of the Foodpanda Taiwan subsidiary to rival Grab to be insufficient.

On Monday, Aspex announced it had increased its stake in Delivery Hero to 15 percent. This gives the Hong Kong-based asset manager greater leverage at Delivery Hero's annual general meeting on June 23.

(Reporting by Hakan Ersen, with contributions from Alexander Hübner. Edited by Olaf Brenner. For inquiries, please contact our editorial office at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and economics) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets).)