Takeaway.com accuses Protus of bidding for Just Eat 'on the cheap'
By Sean Farrell
Date: Wednesday 11 Dec 2019
(Sharecast News) - The boss of Takeaway.com has rejected what he says are misleading claims made by Prosus in an attempt to buy Just Eat "on the cheap" as the companies battle to acquire the UK food delivery service.
Jitsge Groen, Takeaway.com's chief executive, said Prosus was wrong to claim his company's all-share offer would destroy value. He said Prosus had destroyed €28bn (£23.6bn) or 22% of its shareholders' value in the three months since its initial public offering. He contrasted this with a more than tripling of Takeaway.com's share price since its own IPO.
Groen accused Prosus of concocting "a far-fetched valuation of the combined group" by drawing a spurious comparison with Grubhub of the US. He said Takeaway.com's offer gave Just Eat shares a value of about £11 a share compared with Prosus's offer of 740p a share.
Groen said: "Shareholders should see Prosus' claims for what they are: a targeted attempt to buy Just Eat on the cheap. Prosus' offer stops Just Eat Shareholders sharing in the significant upside opportunity offered by the Just Eat Takeaway.com combination, which we believe could be worth an illustrative £11 per Just Eat share."
His other criticisms were:
Unlike Takeaway.com, Prosus has no operational experience of food delivery and has performed a "volte face" in its strategy from developing markets to developed markets.
Drawing a parallel between Grubhub and Just Eat demonstrates Prosus's lack of understanding of the market because the US food delivery market is less developed and more open to competition than the UK where Just Eat is the clear market leader.
Prosus's claim that it is offering a 26% premium for Just Eat is misleading because it is based on a Just Eat share price of 589p on 21 October, almost three months after the start of Takeaway.com's offer period and when Just Eat's share price was depressed by a sale of its shares by Delivery Hero.
Prosus, a technology investor, is attempting to muscle in on Just Eat's agreed all-share sale to Takeaway.com with a cash bid. On 9 December Prosus increased its offer to £5.1bn from £4.9bn and urged shareholders to accept the certainty of cash. Amsterdam-listed Takeaway.com argues shareholders will receive more value if they remain as investors in a combined group.
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