Just Eat digs heels in as suitors sweeten offers
JUST Eat bosses stuck to their guns yesterday and urged shareholders to back a merger with Takeaway. com instead of a rival bid.
The decision came after its two suitors sweetened their bids on Thursday in last-ditch efforts to woo the food delivery group.
Dutch group Takeaway’s final all-stock merger proposal valued Just Eat’s shares at 916p, a 25pc increase on its previous offer of around 731p, valuing the business at around £6.3bn.
And Prosus, a Dutch-listed unit of South African conglomerate Naspers that began trying to gatecrash the Takeaway merger in November, raised its bid from just over £5bn to £5.5bn.
Takeaway has been Just Eat’s preferred suitor throughout. The latter thinks it makes more sense for two food delivery companies to join forces, rather than being sold to Prosus, which wants to move into the market for the first time.
Helal Miah, investment research analyst at The Share Centre, said Just Eat ‘should be commended’ for sticking to its guns. Takeaway needs support from 50pc of Just Eat shareholders to clinch the deal and already has the backing of investors with 46pc of shares.
Just Eat shares shed 2.1pc, or 17p, to 795p last night.
On one of the last full trading days of the year, the London Stock Exchange’s two major indexes were little moved as trading began to wind down – despite several pieces of news that are likely to affect the City and the economy.
Third-quarter GDP growth was revised up to 0.4pc, from 0.3pc before; Financial Conduct Authority boss Andrew Bailey was confirmed as Mark Carney’s successor at the Bank of England; and MPs backed Boris Johnson’s plan to leave the EU on January 31. The
FTSE 100 only edged up 0.1pc, or 8.66 points, at 7582.48, while the
FTSE 250 ended up a mere 0.04pc down, or 8.16 points, at 21674.3.
Medicine maker Astrazeneca made gains after it agreed to sell the commercial rights to two of its drugs to a French company, Juvise Pharmaceuticals, for £139m.
One of the drugs stops the production of oestrogen in women who have gone through the menopause in a bid to stop cancer cells developing, while the other drug, Casodex, is a prostate cancer treatment. Astra’s shares advanced 2.3pc, or 174p, to 7808p.
BT investors were unmoved by finance boss Simon Lowth’s purchase of around £650,000 worth of shares. The telecoms firm’s stock fell 0.2pc, or 0.3p, to 204.25p after BT said he scooped up 318,201 shares for 204p a pop on Thursday.
Often, when company directors buy a chunk of shares, it buoys the share price because it shows investors that management is optimistic about its prospects.
Waste management group
Renewi is relieved the Dutch government has lifted a ban on the use of thermally- treated soil, which aims to clean soil of chemicals such as petrol so that it can be reused.
This means it could be able to sell soil made at a Renewi site in the Netherlands.
Shares in the group, which turns everyday rubbish into products like recycled paper and plastic, rocketed 24pc, or 6.5p, to 33.6p.
Over on AIM, London’s junior market, cosmetics maker Warpaint London tumbled 14.1pc, or 11.5p, to 70p after it told shareholders to brace for annual profits to come in at between £5.1m and £5.5m, down from previous guidance of £6m to £7m.
The make-up group said spending on its expansion in the US and hits from foreign exchange movements had contributed to the profit warning.
Former BBC radio executive Stuart Last’s appointment as chief executive of podcast maker
Audioboom failed to excite shares as they remained flat at 207.5p.