Grace Ashiru
Uber is set to inherit the African delivery businesses of Glovo and Talabat as part of a €14.8 billion ($16.9 billion) takeover of Germany’s Delivery Hero, a deal that hands the San Francisco company a much larger footprint across some of the continent’s fastest-growing food delivery markets.
Announced on a Wednesday, the agreement sees Uber offer €41.50 a share in cash for the Frankfurt-listed group, which runs local delivery brands in more than 60 countries. To clear antitrust hurdles in markets where Uber and Delivery Hero already compete head-to-head, Delivery Hero simultaneously agreed to sell 14 of its businesses to New York investment firm SSW Partners for about $1.6 billion.
That carve-out is what lets Uber keep hold of operations in 50 markets, including every one of Glovo’s African units: Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Tunisia and Uganda, plus Talabat’s sizeable Egyptian business. SSW Partners, meanwhile, picks up Glovo’s European operations in Spain, Portugal, Poland, Romania and Moldova, along with brands like Turkey’s Yemeksepeti, Greece’s efood and Austria’s foodora, which it plans to manage independently while it looks for strategic buyers or partners.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi described the deal as a way to extend affordable, reliable delivery to millions more people across some of the world’s most dynamic economies, and pointed out that it nearly doubles the number of markets where Uber runs both ride-hailing and delivery side by side, a combination central to its cross-platform strategy.
The African assets give Uber a young, fast-growing customer base in cities where smartphone adoption and an expanding middle class have driven demand for on-demand delivery. Talabat already holds a dominant position in Egypt, while Glovo has built strong footholds in cities like Nairobi, Lagos and Casablanca. The acquisition puts Uber in more direct competition with Bolt Food across the region, as well as with local start-ups and informal delivery networks that have grown alongside the formal platforms.
Before the announcement, Uber already held close to a 25% direct stake in Delivery Hero, with further economic exposure through derivatives. Prosus, the Amsterdam-listed tech investor, has agreed to tender its roughly 17% holding, which would push Uber’s total economic interest to about 53%. The offer still needs to clear a minimum acceptance threshold of 50% plus one share, along with the usual regulatory approvals.
To fund it, Uber has lined up around €14 billion in bridge financing from banks including Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and Deutsche Bank, and says it intends to keep its investment-grade credit rating with gross leverage under two times. The company expects the deal to boost earnings per share once it closes, with high-single-digit percentage accretion projected by year three.
Delivery Hero’s supervisory board has backed the offer unanimously. Chair Kristin Skogen Lund called joining forces with a stronger partner the right move to secure the company’s future competitiveness, while CEO Niklas Östberg described it as the right partnership to build on Delivery Hero’s strengths in local food delivery and quick commerce.
The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2027. As part of its commitments in Germany, Uber has agreed to keep Delivery Hero’s Berlin headquarters and make no workforce changes there until at least 2029, alongside a pledge to invest €2 billion in the country over five years, partly to support autonomous vehicle rollout.
Analysts see the transaction as another sign of the consolidation race in food delivery, where profitability is hard to reach without real market share. Africa’s fragmented delivery landscape, in particular, stands out as a consolidation opportunity for a global platform with the financial muscle and technology infrastructure Uber brings.
