(qlmbusinessnews.com via theguardian.com – – Mon,29th July 2019) London, Uk – –
British firm joins Dutch rival to form one of the world’s biggest online food delivery companies
Just Eat is merging with its Dutch rival Takeaway.com in a £9bn deal that will create one of the world’s biggest online food delivery companies.
The two companies have reached an agreement in principle on the key terms of an all-share deal in which the Amsterdam-based company will acquire Just Eat at 731p a share, valuing the British firm at £5bn.
The combined group had 360m orders worth €7.3bn (£6.6bn) in 2018 and strong positions in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and Canada.
Shares in Just Eat jumped 25% to 794.28p on the news.
Just Eat shareholders will receive 0.09744 Takaway.com shares for each Just Eat share and will own 52.2% of the combined group. It will be headquartered in Amsterdam and listed on the London Stock Exchange, with a “significant part of its operations” in the UK.
Takeaway.com’s boss, Jitse Groen, is to become chief executive of the new company. It will be chaired by the Just Eat chairman, Mike Evans, while the Takeaway.com chairman, Adriaan Nühn, becomes vice-chairman. The Just Eat chief financial officer, Paul Harrison, will take on the same role for the combined group, and its interim chief executive, Peter Duffy, will leave.
Groen has described the UK as one of the best three markets in Europe, along with the Netherlands and Poland. Takeaway.com was founded in 2000 and operates in 10 European countries as well as Israel and Vietnam but does not have a presence in the UK. The two companies have little geographical overlap apart from Switzerland.
Analysts at Barclays said: “Just Eat shareholders would be getting the best operator in the space to run the business – a notable shift from missed execution from management in the last few years.”
There has been a flurry of deals in the fast-growing online food delivery market, with competition heating up from Uber Eats and Deliveroo. Just Eat bought UK firm HungryHouse in January 2018, and in December Takeaway.com acquired Delivery Hero’s food delivery business in Germany.
The Canaccord analyst Nigel Parson said: “It is a possibility that Delivery Hero could table a rival bid.”
Just Eat has come under pressure from its activist shareholder Cat Rock Capital to merge with Takeaway.com, in which the US hedge fund also holds a stake.
Just Eat gained more than 4 million customers last year across Europe, Canada, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand. Its revenues are expected to top £1bn this year. It made a pretax profit of £101.7m last year, following a £76m loss in 2017. It will publish first-half results on Wednesday.
In 2018, Just Eat had 26.3m customers while Takeaway.com had 14.1m, Just Eat had 221m orders versus Takeaway.com’s 94m; Just Eat’s revenue was £780m versus Takeaway.com’s €232m; and Just Eat’s underlying profit (Ebitda) was £180m versus an adjusted loss of €11m for Takeaway.com.
Launched by five Danish entrepreneurs in 2001, Just Eat originally linked customers to restaurants that handled their own deliveries. Its former chief executive Peter Plumb, who left suddenly in January, upgraded its technology and launched its own delivery service but he came under fire from Cat Rock and other shareholders after his investment drive slowed earnings growth.
By Julia Kollewe
