Just Eat Rejects New Bid, Sticks With Takeaway.com
Latest bid by Prosus NV still significantly undervalues the company: Just Eat Plc.
(Bloomberg) --
Just Eat Plc has rejected Prosus NV’s higher bid saying that the latest offer still significantly undervalues the company.
Prosus raised its offer for the U.K. food delivery firm by 4.2% to 740 pence-per-share offer on Monday. Just Eat advised shareholders to stick with an all-share combination with Takeaway.com NV in a statement on Tuesday.
Just Eat’s stock has been trading above the offer price as shareholders hold out for a bigger premium. It closed at 781 pence in London trading on Monday valuing the company at about 5.3 billion pounds ($7 billion).
Analysts at Liberum said that the offer undervalued the company and was likely to be rejected by shareholders, while other analysts said Prosus’s bid could put pressure on Takeaway to bump. Cat Rock Capital Management, which owns shares in both Takeaway and Just Eat, has said a Prosus cash bid would need to be 925 pence to compete with the merger.
Read more about what analysts are saying here.
The Just Eat board recommends the Takeaway offer, which is “based on a compelling strategic rationale that allows shareholders to participate in the upside potential of the enlarged group and, based on its own analysis, will deliver greater value creation to Just Eat Shareholders than the Prosus Offer of 740 pence per share in cash,” the company said in the statement.
What Bloomberg Intelligence Says
Prosus’ unsurprising increased hostile cash offer for Just Eat of 7.4 pounds a share from 7.1 pounds, still doesn’t make it irresistible to shareholders, as it denies the potential growth of a combined Just Eat-Takeaway.com. Sweetening from both sides is possible, even after Dec. 27, in our view, with the new offer 5% below the U.K. online food-delivery leader’s last share price.
-- Diana Gomes, BI technology analyst
Just Eat May Get Sweeter Combo Takeaway.com Offer to Defy Rivals
While the Takeaway.com deal values Just Eat shares at about 694 pence, the merger would create a sizeable European food-delivery company to compete with the likes of Uber Eats. Just Eat shareholders would own about 52% of the newly combined company.
Shareholders have until Dec. 27 to accept Prosus’s new offer. Prosus needs investors with more than 50% of shares to agree to the deal for it to go through.
To contact the reporter on this story: Amy Thomson in London at athomson6@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Giles Turner at gturner35@bloomberg.net
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