Dutch technology investor Prosus, a subsidiary of Naspers, has undertaken to sell its remaining 16.8% stake in its Europe food business Delivery Hero to Uber,. for €2.1bn.
Image: File
Prosus has announced the sale of its remaining 16,8% stake in European internet company Delivery Hero, to Uber for around R41 billion, which also aligns with regulatory commitments required for Prosus’ takeover of Just Eat Takeaway.com (JET).
Prosus is majority-owned by Naspers, the owner of Takealot, Mr D, Media24, Property24, and Autotrader in South Africa. Both are listed in the JSE, while Prosus is also listed in Amsterdam. Naspers created the Dutch-based Prosus to house its international internet business assets, including its stake in Chinese technology giant Tencent.
Prosus acquired JET last year for €4,1bn (about R80bn), a dominant delivery service in Europe, akin to Uber Eats and Mr D in South Africa.
The European Commission approved Prosus’s acquisition of JET, but stated that that Prosus' shareholding in Delivery Hero needed to be reduced - both companies deliver food in Europe.
Uber recently announced an offer to acquire the share in Delivery Hero at €41,50 per share. San Francisco-based Uber is listed in New York, with secondary listings in Europe and the Americas. Under the terms of the European Commission’s approval of the acquisition of JET, Prosus committed to significantly reduce its 26.5% shareholding in Delivery Hero.
In April, Prosus sold about 4,5% of Delivery Hero’s shares to Uber, and in May, it sold a further 5% of to Aspex Management. Prosus now holds 16,8% in Delivery Hero, and Uber holds a stake of 24,99%, with a further 11,8% held via instruments.
Uber’s offer represented a significant premium of 151% to Delivery Hero’s one-month average share price before the announcement of Prosus’ initial 4,5% sale in April for around €20 per share or €270m in total (R5,2bn when that sale was announced).
"Prosus believes Uber’s offer represents a fair price and an effective way to comply with its commitments to the European Commission," its directors said in a statement.
Therefore, to support the offer, Prosus entered into an irrevocable undertaking to Uber to dispose of its remaining interest in Delivery Hero. Prosus said it intends to use the proceeds from the disposal for corporate purposes.
San Francisco-headquartered Uber is offering €41,50 per ordinary share of Delivery Hero. Given that Delivery Hero has around 303 million shares, the offer works out to roughly €12,6bn (R236bn). Prosus’s stake is thus worth about R39bn.
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