Delivery Hero Heads Into Key Conferences With Talabat Strength and Woowa Disposal in Focus

Delivery Hero rallies ahead of investor conferences, driven by Talabat's profit upgrade and potential multibillion-dollar sale of South Korea's Woowa Brothers.

Delivery Hero enters a pivotal week with back-to-back investor conferences, armed with fresh catalysts from its Middle Eastern subsidiary and renewed hopes for a landmark asset sale. The German food-delivery group’s stock has already rocketed 46% in four trading sessions, but the fundamental narrative now has two engines: a profit upgrade at Talabat and a potential multibillion-dollar exit from South Korea.

Talabat Gives the Earnings Story Teeth

The Dubai-listed subsidiary Talabat, Delivery Hero’s most important operating pillar in the MENA region, just delivered numbers that shift the conversation from restructuring to growth. Gross merchandise value jumped 19% to $2.7 billion in the latest quarter, while revenue climbed 23% to cross the $1 billion mark for the first time. More critically, Talabat now targets a full-year net profit of $300–$330 million, a signal that margin improvement is taking hold. Bernstein analyst Annick Maas noted the "spürbar bessere Geschäftstrends" — market conditions that lend credibility to Delivery Hero’s broader earnings trajectory.

That improvement matters because Delivery Hero’s own first-quarter figures showed the group still expanding, albeit at a slower clip. Consolidated GMV rose 8.8% to €12.5 billion, segment revenue advanced 17.8% to €3.7 billion, and quick commerce — now 18% of group GMV — surged 30%. The company maintained its full-year guidance of 8–10% GMV growth and adjusted EBITDA of €910–960 million.

Woowa Brothers: The Conference Circuit’s Core Topic

On May 20, Delivery Hero’s management will appear simultaneously at the UBS Technology, Media and Internet Conference in London and the Berenberg European Conference in New York. May 21 brings a slot at J.P. Morgan’s European Technology, Media and Telecoms Conference in London. Across all three events, the same question will dominate: what is the timeline for selling Woowa Brothers, the operator of South Korea’s Baemin platform?

Media reports peg the desired valuation at around 8 trillion Korean won, with Naver, Uber, Alibaba, and DoorDash all named as potential suitors. No binding agreement has been reached, but the strategic review launched in December 2025 appears to be intensifying. JPMorgan is understood to be evaluating the disposal, and investors will press for details on timing and the use of any proceeds — particularly for debt reduction.

Shareholder Shifts and Short Squeeze Dynamics

The recent rally was triggered by a combination of governance changes and forced covering by short sellers. Co-founder Niklas Östberg announced his departure, and the largest shareholder sold a stake to an activist hedge fund. That one-two punch convinced the market that the portfolio overhaul is accelerating. Short sellers scrambled to close positions, propelling the stock from a March low of €14.99 to Friday’s close of €28.99.

The buying pressure has been reinforced by large financial institutions. Morgan Stanley disclosed a cumulative 14.38% stake as of May 15, while JPMorgan’s aggregated exposure rose from 4.48% to 6.68%.

Technically, the shares are now testing resistance. The primary article cites the €30.17 level, while the secondary analysis points to €30.80 as the next hurdle. Support sits at €27.20. The relative strength index of 46.3 suggests the rally is not yet overextended, even though the stock trades 34.6% above its 200-day moving average.

Next Milestones: AGM and CEO Transition

The formal calendar offers a clear next checkpoint. Delivery Hero’s annual general meeting is scheduled for June 23, 2026, in Berlin. Shareholders will elect a new supervisory board member, and the market expects concrete updates on the Woowa process by then. Östberg remains in office until the CEO handover is complete — a transition the board aims to finalize by the end of 2026.

For now, the dual narrative of a profitable Middle Eastern subsidiary and a long-awaited Asian exit gives the rally operational heft. Whether that’s enough to drive the stock through the €30 resistance zone will depend on what management says — and doesn’t say — on the conference circuit this week.