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Uber bid to buy Deliveroo hits shares in rival Just Eat Uber bid to buy Deliveroo could give founder £150m payout
(about 7 hours later)
Shares in Just Eat have fallen 6% following reports that Uber is in talks to buy online food service rival Deliveroo for at least $2bn (£1.5bn). Deliveroo founder, Will Shu, could be set for a payout of nearly £150m ($200m) following reports that Uber has been in talks to buy the London-based food delivery service for at least £1.5bn ($2bn).
Investors in the takeaway app took fright at the prospect of Uber using Just Eat’s arch-rival as a UK platform for boosting the Uber Eats food delivery service. Just Eat shares hit a 2018 low of 664p on the news. Uber has said it wanted to build scale in the takeaway delivery market as its Uber Eats service battles heavy competition in the US from rival Grubhub.
“They say strength in numbers can be a powerful force and so it is no surprise that Just Eat’s shares have taken a big hit on speculation that Uber is going to buy Deliveroo,” said Russ Mould, investment director at stockbroker AJ Bell. In the UK, Deliveroo and UberEats were set to face increased competition from JustEat, the takeaway ordering app which has announced plans to launch its own delivery fleet.
“The combination of two competitors is the last thing Just Eat wants to hear, particularly when it is already trying to play catch up on the delivery side of its business.” With millennials three times more likely to “order in” than their parents, there has been a scramble to control a market that is expected to be worth £279bn ($365bn) by 2030, up from £27bn ($35bn) today, according to analysts at the broker UBS.
The Uber talks were first reported by Bloomberg, which quoted sources saying any deal would have to be “considerably above” Deliveroo’s latest valuation of $2bn. More than half of takeaways are now ordered online in the UK and that share of the market has been increasing by about 5% a year.
The article stated that the talks were at an early stage and could fail because Deliveroo, founded by the former investment banker Will Shu, and its investors are reluctant to part with their independence. Bloomberg reported that the takeover talks, which are said to be at an early stage, might be hindered by Deliveroo mulling whether to retain its independence and push ahead with a potential £1.5bn ($2bn) stock market flotation in the next 18 months.
More details to follow soon However, Richard Clarke, an analyst at the stockbroker Bernstein, said Uber could potentially offer Shu a more lucrative alternative. Shu is thought to have a stake of at least 9% in Deliveroo and he and his fellow shareholders could be offered more cash than they could raise on the stock market.
“We’ve seen a couple of times that private money and the power of synergies can mean the wins can be larger and they can [have] more value,” said Clarke. Bernstein pointed to Coca-Cola’s takeover of Whitbread’s cafe chain Costa Coffee and Pret a Manger’s acquisition by Krispy Kreme owner JAB Holdings, both of which had been considering stock market listings instead. Shu, an American former investment banker, founded Deliveroo in 2013.
Deliveroo, which has 15,000 riders in the UK alone, would hand Uber access to a broader array of restaurants and takeaway fans, particularly in European markets such as France and Spain. That would enable it to save costs by delivering more pizzas and burgers per square mile. A merger would also remove one of Uber’s biggest UK competitors from the scene.
“The market is consolidating pretty quickly,” said Clarke. “Building scale and improving the density of [delivery] drops is an enormous help to profitability.”
DeliverooDeliveroo
UberUber
Couriers/delivery industryCouriers/delivery industry
Food & drink industryFood & drink industry
RestaurantsRestaurants
FoodFood
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