Prosus Shares Tumble as Aggressive iFood Expansion Threatens Short-Term Earnings
Amsterdam, Tuesday 12 May 2026
Despite achieving a $7.3 billion revenue milestone, Prosus shares fell over 6% on 12 May 2026, as aggressive iFood investments threaten to significantly impact upcoming fiscal earnings.
Strategic Sacrifices for Market Dominance
On the morning of 12 May 2026, the Amsterdam AEX index opened lower, eventually dropping by 1.2% [4]. Within this broader market contraction, Prosus experienced a sharp decline, with shares trading 6.4% lower at €38.42 in early European trade [1], before settling slightly to a 6.05% drop at €38.58 [4]. The catalyst for this sell-off was a shareholder letter from Chief Executive Fabricio Bloisi, which outlined a strategic, albeit costly, pivot [1][4]. Following iFood’s success in meeting its full-year targets within a highly competitive landscape, Prosus is aggressively accelerating its capital injection into the Latin American food delivery platform [1]. This expansion is designed to build out new products and capture further market share [1].
E-commerce Milestones and Capital Reallocation
The market’s reaction contrasts sharply with the technology investor’s broader financial health. For the fiscal year ending in late March and early April 2026, Prosus surpassed its financial targets, generating over $7.3 billion in revenue and achieving an adjusted EBITDA of more than $1.1 billion across its e-commerce operations, excluding Just Eat Takeaway and La Centrale [1][3]. Notably, Bloisi confirmed that all of the company’s core ecosystems have now reached profitability [3]. The Latin American travel platform Despegar saw a 30% growth in Brazil, the digital classifieds business OLX realised an adjusted EBITDA exceeding $450 million, and the fintech arm PayU also achieved profitability [4].
Pioneering the Digital Economy with AI
A central pillar of Prosus’s strategy for the 2027 fiscal year is the deep integration of artificial intelligence across its digital economy portfolio [3]. Transitioning from legacy operational models, the company has developed a proprietary ‘Large Commerce Model’ [3]. Trained on billions of historical transactions, this AI infrastructure is currently being deployed to deliver highly personalised marketing and product recommendations across platforms such as iFood, PayU, OLX, and Just Eat Takeaway [3]. This represents a significant leap in software scalability, allowing these platforms to process and predict consumer behaviour with unprecedented precision [GPT].
The European Horizon and Just Eat Takeaway
While the Latin American market remains a focal point for immediate investment, Prosus is also forecasting a European turnaround. Management expects Just Eat Takeaway.com to recover from a four-year slump of declining volumes [3]. By the end of the 2027 fiscal year, the company projects that the platform will return to positive order and revenue growth [3][4]. The ambitious targets set for Just Eat Takeaway include generating over $3.6 billion in revenue and achieving an adjusted EBITDA of more than $100 million [4]. As Prosus navigates the delicate balance between short-term profitability and long-term technological dominance, its aggressive posturing in both AI integration and market expansion will remain a critical case study for the global digital economy [GPT].