(Updated with press release from Just Eat Takeaway, details, updated price)
June 29 (Reuters) – The share price of Just Eat Takeaway (JET) fell to an all-time low on Wednesday after the chief executive of its American subsidiary Grubhub quoted by the Wall Street Journal stating that the sale of the latter will not is not imminent.
The title of the meal delivery group lost 20.47% at 10:50 GMT, the biggest drop in the European Stoxx 600 index, which lost 1.25%, and it hit a low of 14.36 euros. Its decline since the beginning of the year now exceeds 70%.
Just Eat Takeaway announced in April that it was looking to sell Grubhub, in response to criticism from shareholders unhappy with the price performance amid tougher competition and slowing business growth.
But the managing director of the American subsidiary, Adam DeWitt, declared Tuesday during a conference organized by the Wall Street Journal that if the group was looking for a strategic partner in the United States, no project of sale was on the table.
“This announcement disappoints the market because everyone wants JET completely out of Grubhub,” commented Clément Genelot, analyst at Bryan Garnier.
For its part, Berenberg began monitoring the value for sale by judging that a possible sale of Grubhub would not be enough to satisfy investors and that Just Eat Takeaway would undoubtedly have difficulty in drawing the 5.8 billion paid. into action to take control.
“Our estimates are that the company would need to raise around $1 billion in new funding to break even at the cash flow level” if it doesn’t sell Grubhub or other businesses, Berenberg adds.
In a press release published at midday, Just Eat Takeaway assures that “nothing has changed” compared to its previous statements concerning Grubhub.
“In April, we confirmed that management was currently actively considering, with its advice, the establishment of a strategic partnership and / or the sale of Grubhub, in part or in whole”, recalls -t- -he. (Reporting Toby Sterling in Amsterdam and Federica Mileo in Gdansk, French version Marc Angrand, editing by Kate Entringer)