By Toby Sterling
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -Europe’s largest meal delivery company, Just Eat Takeaway.com, scaled back expectations for growth in 2022, as it reported on Wednesday a decline of 1% in first-quarter orders, and said it was exploring a possible sale of GrubHub.
Referring to the U.S. company it bought for $7.3 billion last year, Takeaway said in a statement it was “actively exploring the introduction of a strategic partner into and/or the partial or full sale of Grubhub”.
In a trading update, it added that it now expected “mid-single digit growth” for its Gross Transaction Value (GTV) this year, instead of the “mid teens” predicted last month.
GTV measures the total value of food ordered and delivered.
The company handled 264.1 million orders in the first quarter, compared with an estimate of 286 million by analysts at JPMorgan.
“Our priority for 2022 lies in … strengthening our business,” Chief Executive Jitse Groen said in a statement. “We expect profitability to gradually improve throughout the year, and to return to positive adjusted EBITDA in 2023.”
Takeaway, which posted a billion-euro loss for 2021, has been hit by re-ratings both of loss-making technology companies and those seen as beneficiaries of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Its shares, which have lost two-thirds of their value since an Oct 2020 peak above 100 euros, closed Tuesday at 26.10 euros, slightly above their IPO price of 23 euros in 2016.
Sentiment has soured on the online food segment amid fierce competition since the GrubHub buy closed in June.
The combined company is worth just 5.8 billion euros ($6.3 billion) at current prices.
Shareholders including Cat Rock, with 6.88% of shares, have called on Groen to dispose of Grubhub.
The company said that on an operational level it would try to focus on increasing revenue per order and cutting costs.
It increased its forecast for full-year adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation margin forecasts, marginally, to a range of negative 0.5%-0.7% of GTV, up from negative 0.6-0.8%.
($1=0.9262 euros)
(Reporting by Toby Sterling and Bart Meijer; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
