Distracted drivers

29 October 2019 By Karen Kwok Follow @KarenKKwok

Prosus and Takeaway.com are competing to buy the UK food delivery group. Now a Just Eat shareholder has accused the former of orchestrating a sale of shares in the latter to depress the value of its bid. The war of words won’t deflect investors from demanding a better offer.

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Cat Rock Capital, which owns about 3% of Just Eat, said German-listed Delivery Hero had “structured its share sales in a bizarre and uneconomic fashion that seems deliberately intended to depress Takeaway.com’s stock price” before a shareholder vote on the deal.

Prosus, the internet investment group which owns 22% of Delivery Hero, on Oct. 22 announced an all-cash offer to buy Just Eat for 710 pence per share, or about 4.9 billion pounds.

Delivery Hero said on Oct. 28 it "categorically" rejected the claim. The company started selling shares in Takeaway.com in April, reducing its stake from about 13% to 12.8% today.

“The decision to sell down Takeaway.com shares was taken by Delivery Hero's management board independently in September 2019. Delivery Hero had no knowledge of Prosus's contemplated offer to acquire Just Eat,” Delivery Hero said.

Prosus, which was spun off from South Africa’s Naspers in September, also issued a statement reconfirming “it does not control Delivery Hero or its investment decisions.”

“Prosus had not disclosed its interest in making an offer for Just Eat to Delivery Hero prior to the issue of its Rule 2.7 announcement,” Prosus said.

Separately on Oct. 28, Takeaway.com demanded that Delivery Hero not vote its shares either for or against the company’s Just Eat offer at the extraordinary general meeting in December. It said Delivery Hero had a conflict of interest given Prosus’s shareholding in the company.

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