The food delivery company Just Eat Takeaway is to delist from the London Stock Exchange to cut costs, in a further blow to the UK’s international financial standing.
Just Eat will now only be listed on the Amsterdam stock market, where the company is headquartered. The company said the London delisting resulted from restarting a review into where its shares should be listed.
It cited the “administrative burden, complexity and costs associated with the disclosure and regulatory requirements of maintaining the LSE listing”, low liquidity and the trading volumes of its shares on the London market.
Europe’s largest meal delivery company has been grappling with the end of the pandemic-fuelled boost to online food orders and tough competition from other delivery services.
The decision to delist comes only weeks after Just Eat announced it was selling its US arm, Grubhub, at a considerable loss, only four years after buying the US app in a multibillion-dollar tie-up after the first Covid lockdowns.
Giving the required 20 business days’ notice of its delisting, Wednesday’s announcement means the company’s shares will trade for the last day in London just before Christmas, on 24 December. Given the festive stock market closure over the following two days, the delisting will take effect from 8am on 27 December.
After that date it will be possible for investors to trade the company’s shares only on Euronext Amsterdam. Just Eat said it did not expect the London delisting to have an effect on its shareholders who hold their shares in Amsterdam.
Just Eat advised its investors who hold the company’s shares in London to consult their own investment advisers and brokers on what to do about their shareholding, including how they could convert their holdings into shares that can be traded in Amsterdam.
A spokesperson for Just Eat said the London delisting was part of its “strategy to accelerate growth” as the company looked at “enhancing efficiencies”, and the UK continued to be a key market. They added: “With our network now covering 97% of the UK population, we remain committed to continuing our investment and cementing our leadership position in the country.”
Just Eat delisted from the US tech-focused Nasdaq exchange in 2022, blaming the “complexity and costs” associated with maintaining the listing.
At the time, the company used very similar wording to Wednesday’s announcement to describe its reasons for getting rid of its third stock market listing. It said the decision to delist from the Nasdaq would lead to “substantial cost saving” and a reduction in compliance requirements.
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Just Eat’s decision to leave London is yet another disappointment for the UK’s blue-chip index, coming weeks after the buy now, pay later company Klarna filed for its much-anticipated flotation in the US instead of Britain.
Claire Trachet, the chief executive of the business advisory firm Trachet, said Just Eat’s comments about low trading volumes of its shares on the LSE were a worry.
“The biggest concern lies in the comments about liquidity and volume, especially considering that 15-20 years ago, London was the leading destination for both,” she said. “For Just Eat, ultimately it seems that the cost of dual listing on the LSE has not delivered the expected rewards and therefore didn’t merit the added cost.”
A recent survey of FTSE 350 companies found that British boards are sceptical about the recovery of the LSE. More than half (53%) of business leaders surveyed told the report published by the Chartered Governance Institute UK & Ireland that they expected the City to continue to experience net delistings over the next five years.
