Meal delivery services Takeaway.com and Just Eat have reached an agreement on a merger. The Dutch and the British e-commerce companies will partner up for 5.6 billion euros.
“Scale is everything”
Dutch chain Takeaway.com offers 0.09744 of its own shares in exchange for every Just Eat share. That means a 15% bonus compared to last Friday’s stock price. The British industry peer is currently valued at around 5.6 billion euros.
As a result of the deal, the new merger company will be owned by Just Eat shareholders for 52.2%. Takeaway’s shareholders keep the remaining 47.8%. Jitse Groen, the current CEO of Takeaway.com, will be in charge of the merger company. Paul Harisson, currently the CFO of Just Eat, will also retain his function.
The merger between the two meal delivery services doesn’t come as a surprise. “There are four quoted meal delivery companies in Europe. That’s three too many. Scale is everything,” Groen told Het Parool earlier this year. Additionally, the companies seem to complement each other nicely: Takeaway.com is the biggest in the Benelux, Germany and Poland whereas Just Eat is strongest in Britain, France, Spain, Italy, Denmark and Norway.
