Takeaway Wins Bid For UK’s Just Eat With $8B Share Offer

Online food ordering firm Takeaway.com has won the battle for the U.K.’s Just Eat with a 6.2 billion pound ($8 billion) share offer that will make it one of the biggest meal delivery firms globally.

Takeaway noted that 80.4 percent of the shareholders of Just Eat agreed to the all-share offer, which came out ahead of the 50 percent required to make the deal unconditional, Reuters reported.

Takeaway’s bid was worth 906 pence for each share at the close on Friday, which was more than Prosus’ rival bid of 800 pence cash.

“I am thrilled,” said Takeaway CEO and Founder Jitse Groen in a statement, according to the report.

Groen will lead the merged firm, which will have a listing in London and a headquarters in Amsterdam.

The successful bid of Takeaway concludes the takeover battle, but the company still has to begin integrating Just Eat.

Takeaway has noted the combined firm would have had sales of 1.21 billion euros ($1.35 billion) and a 43 million euro ($47.8 million) loss on a pro-forma basis in 2018. However, both companies reportedly notched formidable sales growth last year.

Takeaway noted the combination will bring approximately 20 million euros ($22.2 million) in yearly cost savings from centralizing orders on its platform and creating improvements with procurement.

Earlier this month, a report surfaced that Takeaway was approaching victory in its battle for Just Eat. Investors who had more than half of the food delivery company’s shares had reportedly made it known that they would agree to the all-stock offer from Takeaway, which was said to have valued the company at approximately $7.8 billion.

On Dec. 19, Takeaway said it had commitments and acceptances from investors who had 46.07 percent of the shares in the firm. Investors had until Jan. 10 to tender shares. As noted at the time, a majority of shareholders had to agree to Takeaway’s proposal for it to be successful.