diff --git a/clients/http-support/src/main/java/org/eclipse/sw360/http/NewHttpClientImpl.java b/clients/http-support/src/main/java/org/eclipse/sw360/http/NewHttpClientImpl.java
index 6b445e18b4..4cc1d8a7df 100644
--- a/clients/http-support/src/main/java/org/eclipse/sw360/http/NewHttpClientImpl.java
+++ b/clients/http-support/src/main/java/org/eclipse/sw360/http/NewHttpClientImpl.java
@@ -10,7 +10,6 @@
 import java.net.http.HttpResponse;
 import java.net.http.HttpResponse.BodyHandlers;
 import java.util.concurrent.CompletableFuture;
-import java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException;
 import java.util.function.Consumer;
 
 import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;
@@ -48,20 +47,19 @@ public NewHttpClientImpl(HttpClient client, ObjectMapper mapper) {
     @Override
     public <T> CompletableFuture<T> execute(Consumer<? super RequestBuilder> producer,
             ResponseProcessor<? extends T> processor) {
-        CompletableFuture<HttpResponse<String>> asyncResponse = null;
-        CompletableFuture<T> resultFuture = new CompletableFuture<>();
         NewRequestBuilderImpl builder = new NewRequestBuilderImpl(getMapper());
         producer.accept(builder);
         HttpRequest request = builder.build();
-        asyncResponse = getClient().sendAsync(request, BodyHandlers.ofString());
-        try {
-            HttpResponse<String> response = asyncResponse.get();
-            T result = processor.process(new NewResponseImpl<>(response));
-            resultFuture.complete(result);
-        } catch (InterruptedException | ExecutionException | IOException e) {
-            resultFuture.completeExceptionally(e);
-        }
-        return resultFuture;
+
+        return getClient().sendAsync(request, BodyHandlers.ofString())
+                .thenCompose(response -> {
+                    try {
+                        T result = processor.process(new NewResponseImpl<>(response));
+                        return CompletableFuture.completedFuture(result);
+                    } catch (IOException e) {
+                        return CompletableFuture.failedFuture(e);
+                    }
+                });
     }
 
     /**
diff --git a/clients/http-support/src/test/java/org/eclipse/sw360/http/NewHttpClientImplTest.java b/clients/http-support/src/test/java/org/eclipse/sw360/http/NewHttpClientImplTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..7b3c642916
--- /dev/null
+++ b/clients/http-support/src/test/java/org/eclipse/sw360/http/NewHttpClientImplTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,139 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright (c) Bosch.IO GmbH 2020.
+ *
+ * All rights reserved. This program and the accompanying materials
+ * are made available under the terms of the Eclipse Public License v2.0
+ * which accompanies this distribution, and is available at
+ * http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v20.html
+ *
+ * SPDX-License-Identifier: EPL-2.0
+ */
+package org.eclipse.sw360.http;
+
+import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;
+import org.junit.Before;
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.net.http.HttpClient;
+import java.net.http.HttpResponse;
+import java.util.concurrent.CompletableFuture;
+import java.util.concurrent.CompletionException;
+import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
+import java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException;
+
+import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat;
+import static org.junit.Assert.fail;
+import static org.mockito.ArgumentMatchers.any;
+import static org.mockito.Mockito.mock;
+import static org.mockito.Mockito.times;
+import static org.mockito.Mockito.verify;
+import static org.mockito.Mockito.when;
+
+/**
+ * Test class for {@code NewHttpClientImpl}.
+ */
+public class NewHttpClientImplTest {
+
+    private HttpClient client;
+    private NewHttpClientImpl httpClient;
+
+    @Before
+    public void setUp() {
+        client = mock(HttpClient.class);
+        httpClient = new NewHttpClientImpl(client, new ObjectMapper());
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testExecuteDoesNotBlockBeforeResponseIsAvailable() throws Exception {
+        CompletableFuture<HttpResponse<String>> pendingResponse = new CompletableFuture<>();
+        when(client.sendAsync(any(), any(HttpResponse.BodyHandler.class))).thenReturn(pendingResponse);
+
+        @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
+        ResponseProcessor<String> processor = mock(ResponseProcessor.class);
+        when(processor.process(any())).thenReturn("processed");
+
+        CompletableFuture<CompletableFuture<String>> executeCall = CompletableFuture.supplyAsync(
+                () -> httpClient.execute(builder -> builder.uri("http://test.org/foo")
+                        .method(RequestBuilder.Method.POST)
+                        .body(body -> body.string("payload", "text/plain")), processor));
+
+        CompletableFuture<String> resultFuture;
+        try {
+            resultFuture = executeCall.get(500, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS);
+        } catch (TimeoutException e) {
+            fail("execute() blocked waiting for HTTP response");
+            return;
+        }
+
+        assertThat(resultFuture.isDone()).isFalse();
+
+        @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
+        HttpResponse<String> response = mock(HttpResponse.class);
+        when(response.body()).thenReturn("body");
+        pendingResponse.complete(response);
+
+        assertThat(resultFuture.get(1, TimeUnit.SECONDS)).isEqualTo("processed");
+        verify(processor, times(1)).process(any());
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testExecuteCompletesExceptionallyWhenProcessorFails() {
+        @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
+        HttpResponse<String> response = mock(HttpResponse.class);
+        when(response.body()).thenReturn("body");
+
+        CompletableFuture<HttpResponse<String>> doneResponse = CompletableFuture.completedFuture(response);
+        when(client.sendAsync(any(), any(HttpResponse.BodyHandler.class))).thenReturn(doneResponse);
+
+        @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
+        ResponseProcessor<String> processor = mock(ResponseProcessor.class);
+        IOException expected = new IOException("boom");
+        try {
+            when(processor.process(any())).thenThrow(expected);
+        } catch (IOException e) {
+            throw new AssertionError("Unexpected checked exception while setting up mock", e);
+        }
+
+        CompletableFuture<String> result = httpClient.execute(builder -> builder.uri("http://test.org/foo")
+                .method(RequestBuilder.Method.POST)
+                .body(body -> body.string("payload", "text/plain")), processor);
+
+        try {
+            result.join();
+            fail("No exception thrown!");
+        } catch (CompletionException ex) {
+            assertThat(ex.getCause()).isEqualTo(expected);
+        }
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testExecutePreservesOriginalIOExceptionForGet() throws Exception {
+        @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
+        HttpResponse<String> response = mock(HttpResponse.class);
+        when(response.body()).thenReturn("body");
+
+        CompletableFuture<HttpResponse<String>> doneResponse = CompletableFuture.completedFuture(response);
+        when(client.sendAsync(any(), any(HttpResponse.BodyHandler.class))).thenReturn(doneResponse);
+
+        @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
+        ResponseProcessor<String> processor = mock(ResponseProcessor.class);
+        IOException expected = new IOException("boom");
+        try {
+            when(processor.process(any())).thenThrow(expected);
+        } catch (IOException e) {
+            throw new AssertionError("Unexpected checked exception while setting up mock", e);
+        }
+
+        CompletableFuture<String> result = httpClient.execute(builder -> builder.uri("http://test.org/foo")
+                .method(RequestBuilder.Method.POST)
+                .body(body -> body.string("payload", "text/plain")), processor);
+
+        try {
+            result.get(1, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
+            fail("Expected ExecutionException");
+        } catch (java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException ex) {
+            assertThat(ex.getCause()).isEqualTo(expected);
+        }
+    }
+}
\ No newline at end of file