The great food takeaway
EleCTiOn nights are the kind of occasion when political aficionados plonk themselves in front of the TV and go online to Just eat for some take-out food.
The big question at present is who is going to take out the £5bn British food ordering and delivery platform.
At the time of the proposed merger with Asda in 2018, Sainsbury’s argued that its prepared food offerings were under threat from upstarts such as Just eat. The market value of the upstart is now bigger than the grocer.
Just eat is like Ocado, a digital company posing as a food outlet. Just east has two suitors. One a Dutch look-a-like, Takeaway, has come forward with an all- share offer worth 690p based on the current share price. The rival bid is an all-cash offer from another Dutch outfit, Prosus, a spin- off from naspers, the digital empire of South African billionaire Koos Bekker. For the uninitiated, fearful that Bekker might be short of a few quid, his stake in China’s Tencent has been valued at £102bn.
The target of both buyers is not the easy access to pizza and fish-and-chips delivery, but the algorithms behind Just eat and a ticket to a £13bn european market, growing at 10pc a year. On the first closing day for the bid, Takeaway looked to have the upper hand, having received 13pc of the vote. in a contest in which neither bidder is likely to pull out, the increasing expectation is that the Takeover Panel will aim for a blind auction in January to settle matters.
Takeaway is already a market leader in the netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Austria, Poland, Bulgaria and israel. Buying Just eat, which is already up and running in Canada, Australia and new Zealand, would not just give the buyer a hold on the UK but also take it into the Anglosphere.
As significantly for overlapping shareholders – notably Cat Rock – it would leave big battalion investors a continuing stake in a fast-growing service industry.
Significantly for the UK, it would also demonstrate that the successful Anglo-Dutch commercial alliance – which includes giants such as Unilever, Relx and Shell – is still alive and kicking.
The merged company will be quoted on the london Stock exchange, where the global investment base is robust.
Prosus also has stakes in food delivery outfits in emerging markets including india and Brazil. it is promising big investment in delivery fleets and ‘unbranded’ restaurants.
if price were the only consideration, then Prosus would have the advantage. Funds often bite off the hand bearing cash. But this is not a typical deal. Takeaway and Just eat are in the foothills of a european digital breakthrough, and a UK quote offers a hefty upside. Such opportunities do not come along very often on this side of the Atlantic.
Carbon capture
The assassination of Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey in October 2018 has been a huge cloud hanging over Saudi Aramco.
Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, known as MBS, wanted the float to be the crowning glory of his modernisation effort.
But instead of the opening bell at the new York or london stock exchanges, and an array of the best and brightest investment bankers, MBS was forced by circumstances into a much lower key offering. in an age of environmental and socially responsible investing, the global funds were going nowhere near Aramco.
Amid arm twisting in the Gulf region, and healthy retail demand, the float was done and a subsequent rise in the share price put a value of $2 trillion (£1.5 trillion) on the group, making it far and away the world’s most valuable company.
Among the unsung beneficiaries has been Britain’s hSBC. As the big global investment banks drifted away, hSBC, which owns a Saudi bank, was left as principal player and has assured itself of a big role in future privatisations.
Given current carbon and governance obsessions, Aramco will not find a ready home in many activist funds. But its scale means automatic inclusion in some global indexes, so that almost certainly – like it or not – all of our pension funds could become under-the-radar owners.
Stylish moves...
HOW not to make friends and influence people. As if loss-making, unstylish clothing brand Superdry doesn’t have enough problems, its self-regarding design boss Phil Dickinson yesterday chastised a woman financial writer from The Times, saying he didn’t want her ‘sweaty journalist hands’ on his £600 jacket.
how very charming.