Just Eat Takeaway’s activist has a full plate

  • 7/27/2021
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LONDON, July 27 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Trying to tame Just Eat Takeaway.com (TKWY.AS) Chief Executive Jitse Groen is like telling an omelette to be less eggy. That hasn’t deterred pushy 4.7% shareholder Cat Rock Capital, which wants the delivery group’s founder to explain his strategy more clearly to improve a lagging valuation. Cat Rock is onto something: Just Eat Takeaway’s roughly 15 billion euro enterprise value is 3.8 times the revenue analysts expect it to generate in the next 12 months, compared with peer Delivery Hero’s (DHER.DE) 4.5 times and DoorDash’s (DASH.N) 11.6 times, using Refinitiv data. Groen has been investing in his own network of delivery drivers despite criticising the business model. The perennially outspoken founder is unlikely to quieten down. Besides, investors have bigger worries, like a questionable recent acquisition read more of America’s Grubhub and rising competition in Germany. Cat Rock also wants Groen to consider selling assets or even merging into a bigger player like DoorDash. They’re not necessarily bad ideas. But given Just Eat Takeaway’s more fundamental problems, the activist’s eyes may be a bit too big for its belly. (By Liam Proud) On Twitter http://twitter.com/breakingviews Capital Calls - More concise insights on global finance: Duolingo IPO valuation doesn’t translate read more SoftBank tries to turn dog into unicorn read more Mediobanca reaches for low-hanging wealth fruit read more Philips sleep fail gives investors recall insomnia read more GM’s self-driving skills take a wrong turn read more

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