Delivery Hero Holder Aspex Tells CEO to Sell Units or Leave

(Bloomberg) — Delivery Hero SE’s second-largest shareholder, Aspex Management, is threatening to try and replace the food delivery company’s management if it doesn’t push ahead with the sale of certain assets.

“Our expectation is that you will identify all those assets where Delivery Hero is not the best owner and operator and the sale of such assets generates higher value,” Aspex wrote in a letter to Delivery Hero’s Chief Executive Officer Niklas Östberg.

Single country divestitures or minority stake sales in businesses would not go far enough, Hong Kong-based Aspex wrote in the letter seen by Bloomberg News. Aspex holds roughly 9.2% of Delivery Hero stock, the letter shows.

Delivery Hero said in December that it’s evaluating options to improve finances and operations. Bloomberg News had reported previously that the company was facing pressure from investors including Aspex to conduct a strategic review amid increasing consolidation in the food-delivery industry, which operates on razor-thin margins.

In its letter to Östberg, Aspex wrote that there is broad-based skepticism among shareholders about whether Delivery Hero is pursuing a strategic review with enough urgency or seriousness.

“Absent a clear near-term commitment to these actions and a credible strategic reset that crystallizes value, we will assess all legal courses,” Aspex wrote. “This particularly includes initiating steps that aim at ultimately changing the leadership of the company.”

Shares in Delivery Hero have fallen almost a third in Frankfurt trading over the last 12 months, giving the company a market value of about €5 billion ($5.8 billion).

“We welcome the dialogue with shareholders and share their commitment to unlocking shareholder value,” Östberg said in an emailed statement on Friday. “As we have stated, we are evaluating all strategic options as part of the review and this is our main focus right now, together with JPMorgan as our advisers.”

The recent share price performance doesn’t accurately reflect the performance of the business, while a number of processes and negotiations are currently being conducted, he said.

Aspex also suggested that Delivery Hero’s profitability is lower that that of its peers because it’s active in too many countries. Delivery Hero, which operates in more than 70 countries according to its website, has previously tried and failed to shed regional businesses, including its Taiwan unit to Uber Technologies Inc.

“While almost all global food delivery and quick commerce players have successfully focused their geographic footprints to optimize for profitability and sustainable free cash flow, Delivery Hero continues to operate across a vast number of countries and markets, “investing” considerable amounts of cash flow to protect market shares across its portfolio,” Aspex wrote

The investor added that Delivery Hero’s sprawling geographic footprint has led to a concerning build up of legal provisions and legal-related contingent liabilities of more than €1.4 billion.

“Management has exposed the business and its shareholders to a completely unacceptable level of risk,” Aspex wrote.

— With assistance from Isolde MacDonogh.

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