AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Investor Cat Rock, one of the largest shareholders of online food ordering company Just Eat Takeaway.com, on Wednesday renewed its call for the company’s management to divest its U.S. arm GrubHub.
The call comes a day after DoorDash, which is larger than GrubHub in the United States, made a big move into European markets with a 7 billion euro ($8.10 billion) acquisition of Finland-based Wolt Enterprises OY.
Cat Rock, which holds a 6.5% stake in Takeaway, said selling or spinning off the Grubhub would improve the valuation of Takeaway, which has lagged peers over the past year, and allow it to defend its positions in Europe.
Amsterdam-based Takeaway, Europe’s largest meals ordering company, completed its $7.3 billion acquisition of GrubHub in June.
Takeaway has responded to criticsm from Cat Rock and other investors last month by noting that it has only recently acquired GrubHub and has plans to defend it against competitors such as Uber. The company could not immediately be reached for comment on Wednesday.
Takeaway’s shares were down 3.7% to 60.71 euros by 0817 GMT Wednesday, and are 34% lower in the year to date.
($1 = 0.8645 euros)
(Reporting by Toby Sterling, Editing by Louise Heavens)
