Just Eat owner reports best ever final quarter in UK
The business hiked its earnings guidance for the financial year, but shares still fell.
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Your support makes all the difference.Just Eat’s parent company reported its best ever final quarter last year in the UK and Northern Europe, but said that its business elsewhere in the world had struggled more.
The company said that gross transaction value (GTV) – a key measure for the sector – had increased 5% to 1.78 billion euros (£1.53 billion) in the UK and Ireland.
Just Eat Takeaway.com said that earnings guidance is now likely to be ahead of what was previously expected for the year, at about 320 million euros (£274 million).
The expectation for the figure, known as earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), was already hiked to 310 million euro (£269 million) in October.
We are excited that both our Northern European and UK and Ireland segments have achieved their all-time high quarterly GTV level, showing the strength of our European business
Yet shares in the business dropped 2.6% on Wednesday morning.
In Northern Europe, GTV was up 5% to 2.04 billion euros (£1.75 billion), the slightly larger North American business shrank 15% and the much smaller Southern Europe and Australia and New Zealand business, which are counted together, shrank 17%.
“We are excited that both our Northern European and UK and Ireland segments have achieved their all-time high quarterly GTV level, showing the strength of our European business,” said chief executive Jitse Groen.
“At the same time, we have achieved a significant milestone with the company now becoming free cash flow positive. We are very much looking forward to 2024.”
Just Eat said that it is still looking at plans to sell its Chicago-based subsidiary Grubhub.
It is something that influential shareholder Cat Rock started demanding in 2021, not long after Just Eat bought the US business for 7.3 billion dollars (£5.75 billion at today’s exchange rate).
“Management, together with its advisers, continues to actively explore the partial or full sale of Grubhub,” the business said.
“There can be no certainty that any such strategic actions will be agreed or what the timing of such agreements will be. Further announcements will be made as and when appropriate.”