Just Eat has become the target of a bid from investment firm Prosus, challenging its £5 billion deal with Takeaway. com .
Prosus has offered 710 pence a share in cash for the UK food delivery company, valuing Just Eat at about £4.9 billion (€5.68 billion), the company said in a statement on Tuesday.
The bid “provides Just Eat shareholders the certainty of an all-cash offer,” Prosus said. The company said it had approached Just Eat’s board and failed to reach an agreement.
Shares jumped as much as 24 per cent on the news in London on Tuesday, the most since July, when Just Eat agreed to sell itself to Takeaway.com of the Netherlands for £5 billion in shares.
The Prosus bid follows a Just Eat statement on Monday that its UK order growth had slowed in the third quarter, to 8 per cent for the calendar third quarter – compared with 11 per cent for the period before. Its guidance for the full-year remains unchanged, the company said, and expects revenue of as much as £1.1 billion.
Representatives for Just Eat and Takeaway.com did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Prosus was listed in Amsterdam in September, a technology-investment business spun out of Naspers Ltd. – Bloomberg
