Just Eat Takeaway.com NV (LSE:JET, NASDAQ:GRUB) may need to sell one of its subsidiaries if it wants to improve its financial performance and lift its share price, analysts at Shore Capital believe.
“A portfolio catalyst could, in our view, provide an opportunity to reappraise the shares on cleaner group GTV [gross transaction value] growth,” analysts at the broker said.
In its most recent trading update, the takeaway group said it is actively exploring the partial or full sale of Grubhub, its US-based subsidiary, although these plans will have been in place for two years in April.
Just Eat saw its shares fall 2% on Wednesday despite reporting strong fourth-quarter GTV growth of 5% in the UK, Ireland and Europe.
Additionally, underlying profits are expected to reach €320 million, beating the company's own guidance by €10 million and market consensus by €15 million.
Even order volumes, which fell by 2% in both the UK&I and Europe, were ahead of the rest of the industry.
In the wider UK takeaway industry, order volumes fell as much as 6% year on year during the latter months of 2023, data from the CGA revealed.
However, it appears its operations outside of Europe are causing the issues.
In North America, orders fell by 13% year on year, while GTV was down by 15%.
Trading in Southern Europe, Australia and New Zealand is also believed to be losing momentum at an increasing speed, with order volume down 16% and GTV falling by 17%.
Just Eat uses its other brands such as SkipTheDishes, Menulog and Takeaway.com for its operations outside of the UK&I and some countries in central Europe.
Shore Capital rates the company a ‘buy’.