Activist Cat Rock urges Just Eat shareholders to oust finance boss

Cat Rock Money, which owns an almost 7% stake in the enterprise, has extensive named for a shake-up of the takeaway shipping expert but has built new demands after a weaker-than-expected trading update previous 7 days.

Just Consume also mentioned final week that it is on the lookout to sell its US arm Grubhub, less than two yrs immediately after agreeing to invest in the operation in a £5.75 billion offer.

In a new assertion, Cat Rock mentioned the business built a “mistake” by buying Grubhub and have to change its leadership team to aid “rebuild its credibility”.

The activist trader, which very first took a stake in the company in 2017, mentioned it will vote versus the re-election of finance main Brent Wissink and most of the group’s supervisory board, which include chairman Adriaan Nuhn, at the yearly normal conference on Could 4.

In an open letter, Cat Rock founder Alex Captain wrote that the main financial officer (CFO) and supervisory board “have overseen a catastrophic destruction of equity price in the earlier two years”.

Shares in the company have dropped in benefit by close to 3-quarters more than the time period, inspite of an enhance in need for speedy deliveries all through the pandemic.

Mr Captain included: “We have been Just Take in shareholders for close to 5 decades and are deeply fully commited to the company’s very long-time period success.

“We consider Just Eat’s equity value has decoupled from its fundamentals for the reason that of a full reduction of have confidence in in the management and supervisory boards’ funds allocation and economical management.

“Just Eat desires a new CFO to restore credibility with the cash marketplaces and a new supervisory board to quickly refocus the enterprise on Europe, use the proceeds of divestitures to improve Just Eat’s capitalisation, and actively assess other strategic selections.”

Fellow trader Lucerne Cash has also explained it ideas to vote towards Mr Wissink’s re-election up coming 7 days.

A Just Try to eat spokeswoman said: “Just Consume Takeaway.com’s administration shares trader disappointment in the modern share cost functionality of the enterprise.

“However, the steps we are getting, together with in relation to Grubhub, are meant to develop important shareholder worth.

“We consider that Cat Rock’s proposal to remove vital supervisory and management board customers, would be each price damaging and destabilising.”