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The offering announcement follows three consecutive quarters of order growth acceleration.
Covid-19 pandemic restrictions over the past year have forced many restaurants and cafés to revert to takeaway and delivery services only, resulting in a boom for the delivery sector.
Now, food-ordering company Just Eat Takeaway is looking to capitalise on this boom, raising €1.1bn in a convertible bonds offering to strengthen its balance sheet and “act on strategic opportunities which may arise”.
The convertible bonds consist of two tranches with an aggregate principal amount of €600m due in August 2025 and another amount of €500m due February 2028.
The news follows three consecutive quarters of order growth acceleration, which the company attributes to “Covid-19 tailwinds” and “significant investments” in legacy Just Eat markets.
It also comes as the company looks to complete its acquisition of US rival GrubHub. When the deal was announced last June, Just Eat Takeaway said the $7.3bn acquisition would create “the world’s largest online food delivery company outside of China”.
While Just Eat Takeaway said it would not use the latest bond money to raise its GrubHub takeover offer, it said the proceeds would be used to provide “financial flexibility” to act on potential future strategic opportunities, which could include future acquisitions.
However, the Amsterdam-headquartered company does intend to use the money for the payment of transaction costs for the GrubHub deal and the potential funding requirements for the company’s stake in Brazillian food delivery company iFood.
Just Eat Takeaway plans to sell its stake in iFood once it reaches what it deems “a fair value”. The timing of a potential sale and monetisation is still unknown.
In July 2019, Takeaway.com announced its intention to merge with Just Eat to become one of the world’s biggest online food delivery firms, with 40m customers across 20 countries. After about six months of uncertainty, Just Eat and Takeaway.com agreed on the merger in January last year.
Just Eat Takeaway is due to present its Q4 and full-year 2020 earnings report on 10 March.
