Just Eat Takeaway sells US unit Grubhub for $650 million

By Michal Aleksandrowicz and Gianluca Lo Nostro

(Reuters) -Europe's biggest meal delivery firm Just Eat Takeaway said on Wednesday it had struck a deal to sell its U.S. unit Grubhub to Wonder for $650 million.

The Amsterdam-listed company had been looking to offload Chicago-based Grubhub since as early as 2022, after acquiring it in 2020 in a $7.3 billion all-stock deal amid a pandemic-driven boom in delivery services.

Wonder is a food-delivery startup led by former Walmart executive Marc Lore.

Advanced talks between the two companies were first reported by the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.

Just Eat CEO Jitse Groen had in February said the M&A environment was not easy in the U.S., where fee caps cost the group some $100 million per year.

Grubhub and its U.S. peers DoorDash and Uber Eats have been in a legal battle with New York City over a law capping how much they can charge restaurants for delivering meals.

Under New York City law, food-delivery businesses can only charge a capped 15% delivery fee from the restaurants.

Grubhub's enterprise value of $650 million includes $500 million of senior notes and $150 million cash, Wonder said in a statement.

J.P.Morgan analysts said in a note they had argued for an about $1.2 billion valuation for Grubhub in the past, but added they expected the market to view the transaction as positive even with a lower valuation.

The transaction is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2025, and Just Eat said it would not impact its full-year guidance and that it retains no material liabilities associated with Grubhub.

(Reporting by Michal Aleksandrowicz and Gianluca Lo Nostro in Gdansk; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman, Mrigank Dhaniwala and Milla Nissi)