Just Eat Falls After 2023 Outlook Highlights Growth Uncertainty

(Bloomberg) — Just Eat Takeaway.com NV shares fell after the company gave an outlook that lacked a clear growth forecast for 2023, highlighting uncertainties food-delivery companies face post-pandemic.

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Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization for the full-year was €19 million ($20.2 million) compared to a loss of €350 million the previous year, the company said in a statement on Wednesday. Just Eat maintained its long-term targets and said it still expects to achieve Ebitda of about €225 million in 2023, with growth skewed toward the end of the year.

Shares fell as much as 4.8% in the steepest intraday decline since Feb. 10.

The food-delivery companies that experienced surging orders during the pandemic have been grappling with a slowdown after restaurants reopened for in-person dining. Amsterdam-based Just Eat has been focusing on cutting costs as it looks for ways to win new customers.

Just Eat’s large Ebitda beat in the second half of 2022 was mainly due to the firm’s Northern Europe segment, according to Jefferies analyst Giles Thorne. Another key item from the results was a lack of guidance on the gross transaction value for 2023, Thorne said.

Growth in the US needs to improve said Chief Executive Officer Jitse Groen on a call with journalists, adding that the company’s businesses have “very varied results”.

Read More: Just Eat Takeaway Records 3 Billion-Euro Hit on Grubhub

Key Insights

• The company reported a loss for the period of €5.7 billion, which was wider than analyst estimates for a €3.65 billion loss. That was mainly due to a €4.6 billion impairment on past equity-funded acquisitions and a book loss of €275 million on the sale of the firm’s stake in iFood.

• Revenue increased about 4% to €5.6 billion ($5.9 billion) in 2022, the company said in a statement Wednesday. That matched what analysts expected in the period.

• Orders dropped 9% to €984 million and the gross transaction value of €28.2 billion in 2022 was stable compared to a year earlier due to higher average transaction volumes and favorable foreign exchange rates.

• The firm said in its January trading update that the pandemic continued to affect its year-on-year comparison, but a focus on profitability resulted in Just Eat meeting its goal of positive adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization in 2022.

• Just Eat said it continues to actively explore the possible sale of its US-based Grubhub unit.

• There is uncertainty about the future profitability of Grubhub because of the fee caps that are still in place in New York, Groen said.

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–With assistance from Saksha Menezes.

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