Uber’s takeaway talks deliver blow to Just Eat

Takeaway firm Just Eat was tossed aside by investors, as Uber made a move on its upmarket rival Deliveroo.

Just eat, which elbowed its way onto the FTSe 100 last year, fell 4.8pc, or 34p, to 674p after rumours emerged that Uber was considering buying Deliveroo.

Launched 12 years before its rival, Just eat was developed as an online platform for restaurants which already had delivery fleets to connect with customers. Deliveroo and Uber eats, on the other hand, have since built their own delivery network.

Just eat has only just started to move into this area, and has been forced to spend millions of pounds to catch up.

The power of a combined UberDeliveroo would pose yet another hurdle for Just eat, which is also facing a backlash from some restaurant clients over high fees.

Valued last year at £1.5bn, compared to Just eat’s current £4.6bn, privately owned Deliveroo has been considering a float on the

public markets, though a deal with Uber would take this off the cards. another promising unlisted start-up gave a welcome boost yesterday to Neil woodford, one of the Uk’s best-known fund managers who has been criticised for underperformance recently.

The Woodford Patient Capital

Trust, which invests savers’ money in young, disruptive businesses, increased by 4.7pc, or 3.8p, to 85.6p as it revealed its company Industrial Heat had rocketed in value.

US-based Industrial Heat is exploring new methods of energy production such as cold fusion, an as- yet unproven method of nuclear fusion which would take place at room temperature instead of at extremely high temperatures. This caused Link Fund Solutions, which values woodford’s unlisted companies periodically, to increase Industrial Heat’s value by 357pc to £84.7m.

as Brexit negotiations hit a wall yesterday, causing the pound to slump against the dollar by 1.5pc to $1.31, the FTSE 100 rose 1.67pc, or 122.91 points, to 7490.23.

Heavyweight companies such as kingfisher, Imperial Brands and a host of miners, which make much of their earnings in other currencies, helped the blue- chip index to excel. But engineering firm Smiths

Group struggled, as it announced full-year profits had dropped by 8pc to £544m.

Much of the slide was due to problems in the medical business but overall, taking out the effects of currency fluctuations, Smiths achieved its first growth in sales for five years.

Shares still ended the day down 4.4pc, or 70.5p, at 1520.5p. On London’s junior market Tasty – the owner of wildwood and Dim T restaurants – crashed by 11.8pc, or 2p, to 15p.

The company said it was struggling with fewer consumers wanting to spend in restaurants, a problem which had been exacerbated by the world Cup and unfavourable weather.

It swung from a £210,000 profit in the first half of last year to a £309,000 loss this year. even so, Tasty was confident that it could turn its performance around by investing more in successful sites and closing those which lag. yosi Fait, the boss of Telit Communications which develops technology to make household machines communicate with each other over the internet, will be unable to see the turnaround of his company through after being ousted yesterday.

Hedge fund manager Davide Serra, a shareholder, had been pushing for Fait’s departure after he was awarded a bumper share payout worth £8.2m.

Telit’s shares closed 7.2pc, or 11.5p, higher at 171.5p.