Europe’s biggest meal delivery company, Just Eat Takeaway.com, is looking at selling US arm Grubhub less than a year after buying it, under pressure from investors to revive its shares amid stiff competition and a fading pandemic boost.
Takeaway, which paid $7.3bn for Grubhub in 2021 while racking up a billion-euro loss, has been hit as investors reappraise valuations for loss-making technology companies and stocks seen as big beneficiaries of the pandemic. In a trading update, Takeaway said orders had fallen by 1% in the first quarter and that it now expected “mid-single digit growth” in gross transaction value this year, instead of the “mid teens” predicted in January.Takeaway handled 264.1-million orders in the first quarter, compared with an estimate of 286-million by JPMorgan analysts.
Major shareholders including Cat Rock, the company’s second-largest investor with a 6.88% stake, publicly criticised the purchase of Grubhub and have called on Groen to sell it.