Just Eat Takeaway: Prosus set to acquire European food delivery giant in £3.4b all-cash takeover deal

According to Financial Times, the offer of €20.30 (£16.81) per share represents a 22% premium over Just Eat Takeaway’s recent three‐month high - even though it remains below the IPO trading price of €23.50 (£19.46) when the company first went public in 2016. The acquisition comes on the heels of a turbulent period for the Amsterdam-based group, whose shares soared during the Covid-19 pandemic before falling sharply as lockdowns ended.

For Prosus, the deal is its largest transaction since chief executive Fabricio Bloisi took the helm in May. Bloisi said on Monday that the Just Eat deal was an “opportunity to create a European tech champion.” Prosus’ chief investment officer, Erving Tu, added that the agreement did not mean the company was “out of the game” for future deals in the sector, stressing that the Just Eat offer - targeted for completion by the end of 2025 - remains the top priority.

The proposal, which has received a recommendation from Just Eat Takeaway’s board and awaits shareholder approval, comes in at less than one-fifth of the company’s peak stock price in 2020. Jitse Groen, founder and chief executive of Just Eat Takeaway, said the deal offered “immediate, certain and attractive value for investors” and would free up capital to invest in growth that wouldn’t be possible as a public company. “It’s a very large premium to the current share price, that is always most important in these discussions,” he said.

Following the announcement, Just Eat Takeaway shares surged by roughly 52%, while competitors such as Deliveroo and Delivery Hero saw more modest gains of 4% and 7% respectively. In contrast, Prosus’ shares dropped by more than 7% in early trading.

Prosus, the investment arm of South Africa’s Naspers, has pursued Just Eat Takeaway for years. Earlier in 2020, it lost a bidding war to Takeaway.com for a UK food delivery pioneer. Just Eat, led by Groen - who founded the company in 2000 - has faced a rocky road in recent years. Notably, during the pandemic-fuelled boom in 2021, the company acquired US-based Grubhub for $7.3 billion (£5.78 billion), only to sell it last November for $650 million (£514.35 million).

As part of cost-cutting measures implemented in December, Just Eat Takeaway had already delisted from the London Stock Exchange to focus solely on its Amsterdam listing. On Monday, the firm reported a net loss of €1.65 billion (£1.37 billion) for 2024, with €1.16 billion (£960 million) of that loss attributed to Grubhub. Groen noted that the group had evolved into a “faster growing, more profitable and predominantly European-based business” and said the deal would “accelerate our investments and growth across food, groceries, fintech and other adjacencies.”