Yahoo Finance Just Eat advises shareholders against Prosus hostile takeover bid
UK meals delivery firm Just Eat (JE.L) has just advised shareholders not to accept a 710 pence-a-share cash offer from Prosus.
Prosus is a unit of South African technology investment firm Naspers. Prosus has a valuation of more than €100bn (£85.6bn, $110.2bn), largely thanks to stakes in technology companies such as Tencent. It controls iFood, the largest food delivery company in Latin America.
Just Eat said in a statement that the proposal — a hostile all-cash offer — was inferior to a deal it had made with Takeaway.com.
Just Eat is one of the many online takeaway delivery companies that face stiff competition from the likes of Deliveroo and Uber Eats. In May this year, Amazon announced a £575m ($740m) investment in Deliveroo, but that deal has been put on hold pending an inquiry by the competition watchdog.
In July, Just Eat said that it had agreed to merge with Takeaway.com, creating an £9bn company with roughly 360m global takeaway orders, to make it the largest food delivery player outside China.
"Your Board believes that the Takeaway.com combination provides Just Eat shareholders with greater value creation than the Prosus offer," it said in a letter to investors on Monday.
“Accordingly, the Board unanimously recommends that you should take no action in relation to the Prosus offer of 710 pence per share in cash. Instead, the Board unanimously recommends that you accept the Takeaway.com offer, either through CREST or complete and return your Takeaway.com Form of Acceptance for the Takeaway.com Combination.”