Just Eat senior executive steps down amid misconduct investigation
Just Eat Takeaway is facing boardroom turmoil after a senior executive stepped down amid an investigation by the courier group into a formal complaint regarding misconduct at a company event.
The board of Just Eat said it would not be putting Jörg Gerbig, its chief operating officer, forward for re-election at the company’s annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday, as it was due to engage an “external expert” to conduct an investigation into “possible personal misconduct”.
The group’s chair, Adriaan Nühn, also announced plans to stand down shortly before the group’s annual shareholder meeting, as the delivery firm faced anger from shareholders over a botched takeover deal and heavy losses.
The company said an investigation into the complaint against Gerbig, which it said was “not related to financial or reporting obligations”, was at an initial stage and no conclusions had been drawn.
Just Eat said the confidential nature of its policy for whistleblowers and “the requirement for a thorough process, recognising the privacy and interests of all involved” meant “no additional information can be provided at this time”.
The firm did not disclose which company event the complaint related to. Just Eat was recently criticised for holding a lavish ski trip for more than 5,000 staff, dubbed Snow Fest, in Arosa, Switzerland last month at a reported cost of €15m (£12.6m).
Gerbig is fully cooperating with the investigation and has informed Just Eat’s board that he has “full confidence in the outcome”.
He will cease to be a member of the group’s management board from the close of the group’s annual meeting on Wednesday, and Just Eat said it would provide a further update on the investigation “if and when appropriate”.
Nühn also unexpectedly announced plans to stand downas he said it was “clear that shareholders have concerns about the challenges the company is facing”.
Just Eat faced a shareholder revolt at its annual meeting after revealing declining orders and plans to sell off all or part of its US-based Grubhub arm, which it bought for $7.3bn in a deal agreed less than two years ago and completed last year. The company recently revealed a pre-tax loss of more than €1.1bn (£916m) for 2021 although it said it was “rapidly progressing towards profitability”.
Just Eat’s second-largest shareholder, the US fund Cat Rock, has called for a shake-up of the company’s board, saying there had been a “complete loss of trust” by investors as the value of their shares has dived by about 75% in two years.
In an open letter to other shareholders, Cat Rock called for them to block the re-election of Just Eat’s chief finance officer and replace its supervisory board to “restore credibility with the capital markets” and “quickly refocus the business on Europe”.
It told the meeting on Wednesday that a sale of Grubhub “has to happen, and it has to happen quickly”.
Another shareholder, Pieter Taselaar, founding partner at Lucerne Capital Management, said shareholders had lost faith in management and called for a “full strategic review of all assets”, Reuters reported.
After the meeting, Just Eat said resolutions had been passed to reelect all the directors who had faced a vote, including the chief executive, Jitse Groen, and chief financial officer, Brent Wissink.