Activist is hungry for more at Just Eat

AN ACTIVIST investor has branded Just eat’s results unacceptable, after growth at the business slowed.

Cat Rock Capital, a US hedge fund, one of the takeaway company’s top ten shareholders, wants it to merge with a competitor to bolster its size and boost investor returns.

After Just eat revealed that orders grew by only 7.4pc last year, Alex Captain, Cat Rock’s managing director, renewed his call for the company to thrash out a deal.

he said: ‘ These results clearly underscore the need for urgent change at Just eat. These results are unacceptable given that the average customer still only orders less than once per month in the UK.’

Just eat blamed the February heatwave for a slump in demand for orders, as customers ate out instead.

The firm handled 31.9m UK deliveries in the first three months of 2019, up 7.4pc on a year earlier.

But this was a much slower growth rate than in the same period of 2018.

The late easter also meant the bank holiday came after the first quarter had ended, so it missed out on a sales increase from that too. Shares fell 4.6pc, or 34.2p, to 714.4p.