INTERNATIONAL – The takeover battle for British food delivery ordering service Just Eat heated up yesterday as a key shareholder accused German peer Delivery Hero of undermining one of the two rival offers.
Takeaway.com and internet giant Prosus, both based in the Netherlands, are vying to buy Just Eat, with Prosus last week unveiling an unsolicited $6.3 billion (R92bn) offer in cash, or 710 pence (R132.80) per share. Just Eat, which had already agreed in August to an all-share offer from Takeaway, rejected the new bid.
However, a 13 percent slide in the value of Takeaway’s shares since August 30 has reduced the value of the Takeaway bid from an original 731p a share to 594p.
German food delivery company Delivery Hero finds itself tangled up in the battle since it is part owned by Prosus and is in turn an investor in Takeaway.
Just Eat shareholder Cat Rock yesterday alleged that Delivery Hero, which is 22 percent owned by Prosus, had been selling down its 13 percent stake in Takeaway shares to keep them artificially suppressed and lower the attractiveness of Takeaway’s offer.