FTSE 100 Loses Tech Star as Just Eat Takeaway Gets the Boot

(Bloomberg) -- One of Britain’s biggest online platforms is getting ousted from the U.K.’s benchmark index in a blow to the country’s effort to nurture a stable of world-class technology companies.

Just Eat Takeaway.com NV will leave the FTSE 100 on Sept. 20, along with Weir Group Plc, index provider FTSE Russell said Wednesday in its quarterly review of changes to the benchmark. Meggitt Plc and Wm Morrison Supermarkets Plc will take their places. 

FTSE Russell classified Just Eat Takeaway as British after the 2020 combination of Britain’s Just Eat and Dutch competitor Takeaway.com, making it eligible for the FTSE, because the company had said it would delist its stock from Euronext Amsterdam. Just Eat Takeaway backtracked on that earlier this year, prompting FTSE Russell to change the company’s assigned nationality to Dutch last month.

The ouster means the FTSE 100’s already-low technology weighting will shrink even further. Technology stocks account for only 1.8% of the index, versus about 30% for the S&P 500 Index in the U.S. 

“It’s a shame for the FTSE 100 to have to let go of that because it did bring attention to the index,” John Moore, head of trading at Berkeley Capital Wealth Management, said by phone, referring to Just Eat. “It doesn’t have many tech companies on there.” 

The index also is about to lose its second-biggest stock, mining behemoth BHP Group Plc, which is set to move to a primary listing in Australia.

The share-turnover rules for membership in the FTSE 100 Index -- London needs to account for the most share volume for the stock -- made it nearly impossible for Just Eat Takeaway to stay on the FTSE 100 without delisting from the Amsterdam bourse.

Just Eat Takeaway changed its mind on making London its stock-market home because the company acquired Grubhub in the U.S. this year, expanding its investor base beyond Europe. The shares will trade on the London Stock Exchange, Euronext Amsterdam and Nasdaq while the company mulls which location would be best for its primary listing, and a further announcement will be made “in due course,” a spokesman said last week in response to emailed questions. 

While the coronavirus pandemic boosted shares in so-called “lockdown winners” as house-bound consumers ordered more takeout, Just Eat Takeaway has lagged behind. Its Amsterdam-traded shares have slumped 11% in 2021, giving up nearly all of last year’s gains, on the threat of rising competition in its key German market and worries over delivery fee caps in New York.

Just Eat went public in London in 2014 and Takeaway.com listed in Amsterdam in 2016. Following the sale of Just Eat to the Dutch company, shares in the combined business traded on both Euronext Amsterdam and the LSE.

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