Just Eat’s discount deal puts CEO on notice

Just Eat Takeaway.com NV

13/11/2024 16:07

(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist.  The opinions
expressed are her own.)
    By Karen Kwok
       LONDON, Nov 13 (Reuters Breakingviews) - The food
delivery firm finally sold Grubhub for $650 mln, a stark decline
from the $5 bln it paid three years ago. Investors’ cheer
reflects that they feared an even worse price, and it gets rid
of a dead weight. But Just Eat boss Jitse Groen can’t afford any
more mistakes.
    
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    CONTEXT NEWS
    Just Eat Takeaway on Nov. 13 said it had struck a deal to
sell its U.S. unit Grubhub to food delivery startup Wonder for
$650 million.
    The Amsterdam-listed company had been looking to offload
Chicago-based Grubhub since early 2022, after acquiring it in
2020 in a $7.3 billion all-stock deal. The acquisition completed
in 2021 with a lower valuation of 4.8 billion euros ($5
billion). 
Grubhub's enterprise value of $650 million includes $500 million
of senior notes and about $150 million cash. Just Eat Takeaway
said it expected net proceeds of up to $50 million from the
deal.
    Shares of Just Eat Takeaway were up 20% by 0803 GMT on Nov.
13. 

 (Editing by Aimee Donnellan and Streisand Neto)
 ((For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can
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karen.kwok@thomsonreuters.com))