Prosus And Takeaway Battle For Just Eat Acquisition

Tech company Prosus and Takeaway.com are both bidding to take over the British delivery service Just Eat. On Wednesday (Nov. 20), Prosus criticized its rival, saying that Takeaway.com’s bid holds “significant risks” for shareholders.

In the meantime, Takeaway’s stock price has reached a point in the last two weeks where the value of its all-shares offer is roughly the same value as Prosus’ cash bid of $6.3 billion.

Prosus said Takeaway’s bid “takes a narrow view of the food delivery sector based principally on its experience in the Netherlands and Germany – markets that have so far been relatively insulated” in terms of competing with global rivals like Deliveroo and Uber Eats.

Takeaway said its offer will see the creation of a brand-new delivery powerhouse company, and will have cost savings of 20 million euros.

Takeaway made its formal offer on Wednesday (Nov. 20) and asked its shareholders to send shares by Dec. 11, the same day both offers are scheduled to expire. The board of Just Eat recommends that shareholders accept the Takeaway bid and reject Prosus’ bid, which they say “undervalues” the firm.

If Takeaway’s bid is accepted, Founder Jitse Groen would become CEO of the new company, which would be valued at around $6.14 billion. Just Eat shares were trading at 752.4 pence on Wednesday, a sign of a likely elevated price point.

“Takeaway.com’s claim that it can achieve a meaningful own-delivery rollout with no impact on the bottom line and through only tens of millions of investment is, in Prosus’ view, unrealistic and demonstrates their lack of experience with the own-delivery business model,” noted Prosus’ statement.

Takeaway said earlier in the month that it would see costs “in the tens of millions” to pursue long-term growth, which would include its “Scoober” brand delivery service in the country.