Cat Rock says Prosus will have to raise Just Eat bid to 925p per share
Activist investor Cat Rock has said it will throw its weight behind Just Eat’s Takeaway.com merger unless Prosus raises its offer to 925p per share.
The Dutch food delivery firm has had a £5bn bid accepted for Just Eat but tech group Prosus has come in with a rival 710p per share offer.
Read more: Cat Rock wants Takeaway.com to succeed in chase for Just Eat
However, Cat Rock said in a letter to fellow shareholders today that Prosus had overplayed Just Eat’s challenges as a way to justify a low-ball bid.
Instead Prosus should offer 925p per share, equiivalent to five times Just Eat’s expected 2020 revenue.
“While we are pleased that Prosus has bid for Just Eat, we are deeply disappointed with both the level of their offer and their approach to the bidding process,” Cat Rock founder Alex Captain said.
“Instead of offering a fair price for Just Eat, Prosus has made a number of claims about Just Eat and Takeaway.com aimed at convincing shareholders not to support their merger.”
Captain added that a combined Just Eat-Takeaway.com delivery giant could hit a 1,200p per share valuation in 2020.
Cat Rock, which owns a 2.6 per cent stake in Just Eat, warned there is a “significant risk” that Prosus could reduce the acceptance threshold to 50 per cent and one share. That could leave shareholders who vote against the deal as minority investors in a firm mostly owned by Prosus.
That, Captain, argued, could make shareholders feel like they had little choice but to accept a Prosus bid below fair value.
Read more: Prosus and Takeaway.com trade blows in battle for Just Eat
Just Eat has urged investors not to accept the offer from the internet giant, which is controlled by South African investment behemoth Naspers.
The deadline for first acceptance on both Takeaway.com and Prosus’ first offers is 11 December, with both approaches requiring 75 per cent of shares to win out.
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