Europe’s biggest meal delivery firm Just Eat Takeaway said on Wednesday it had struck a deal to sell its US unit Grubhub to Wonder for $650 million.
The announcement sent shares for the company up 20% in early trading.
The Amsterdam-listed company had been looking to offload Chicago-based Grubhub since as early as 2022, after acquiring it in 2020.
Just Eat purchased the company for $7.3 billion amid a pandemic-driven boom in delivery services.
The process was then hampered by slowing growth, high taxes and a question of fee caps in New York City.
Analyst at Clement Genelot Bryan Garnier noted that the group had destroyed more than $7 million in shareholder value in the US, saying, “Just Eat Takeaway is at last putting an end to its disastrous US journey.”
Grubhub’s enterprise value of $650 million includes $500 million of senior notes and $150 million cash, Wonder said in a statement.
Wonder is a food-delivery startup led by former Walmart executive Marc Lore.
Grubhub
The Wall Street Journal first reported advanced talks between the two companies on Tuesday.
Just Eat CEO Jitse Groen in February said that the M&A environment in the US – where free caps cost the group some $100 million per year – was not easy.
Grubhub and US peers DoorDash and Uber Eats have been in a legal battle with New York City over a law capping how much they can charge restaurants for delivering meals.
JP Morgan said in a note it had argued for about $1.2 billion valuation for Grubhub in the past, but the market would view the long-awaited deal as positive even at a lower valuation.
The transaction is expected to be completed in the first half of 2025.
Just Eat said the sale would not impact its full-year guidance and that it retains no material liabilities associated with Grubhub.
However, analysts said Just Eat might need to exit other markets as well to close the valuation gap with European peers, naming Australia and Canada as options.
Excluding the US, Just Eat operates in 18 countries. It exited New Zealand and France earlier this year.
If the gains hold, Just Eat’s shares will see their biggest daily rise since August 2022, wiping out most of their year-to-day losses that stood at 18.1% at Tuesday’s close.
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