Prosus has a acquired a further 8.06% of the shares in Just Eat Takeaway.com during the post-closing acceptance phase and the delisting of the latter’s shares on the Euronext Amsterdam exchange will terminate on November 17.
Naspers completed its R83bn acquisition of European food delivery business Just Eat Takeaway.com (JET) through its international unit, Prosus, earlier this month when the offer became unconditional. At that stage it held 90.13% of JET's shares.
Prosus extended the acceptance period to October 1 to align with a revised competition clearance timeline set by the European Commission in July. Prosus now holds 98.19% of the shares and the group will now initiate statutory squeeze-out proceedings to obtain 100% of the shares.
Largest investment yet
In February, Prosus took a second swing at acquiring Europe’s biggest meal delivery company JET for €4.1bn, making it its largest investment yet.
The technology investor gained EU antitrust approval on August 11 for its bid, after agreeing to sell down its stake in German online takeout business Delivery Hero.
Naspers offered to significantly reduce its 27.4% stake in Delivery Hero to below a specified very low percentage within 12 months.
The group also pledged not to exercise the voting rights with its remaining limited stake in Delivery Hero and also not to increase its stake beyond the specified maximum level. It will not recommend or propose any person to Delivery Hero’s management and supervisory boards.
Prosus in global top four
The Just Eat Takeaway.com deal would make Prosus the world’s fourth-largest food delivery company after Meituan, DoorDash and Uber, according to ING analysts.
In 2020, Naspers failed to secure a high-profile bid for Just Eat, losing out to Takeaway.com, which paid $8bn.
Prosus’ £5bn bid, about R98bn at the time, was seen as a sign of an ambitious strategy to build a bigger food delivery business to take on Silicon Valley giant Uber Eats and Amazon-backed Deliveroo.
While Prosus is now under new management, led by CEO Fabricio Bloisi, its ambition to build a European food delivery powerhouse has remained. This time, though, it acquires a bigger entity: the combined Just Eat and Takeaway.com, at a lower price, all with the benefit of lessons learnt since the first attempt.
Operating in 17 international markets, Just Eat Takeaway.com connects about 60-million customers with more than 362,000 restaurant partners.
The acquisition will be funded through Prosus’ existing cash resources.
With Mudiwa Gavaza
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