EU clears Just Eat takeover by Dutch group Prosus

The EU on Monday conditionally approved Dutch investment group Prosus's bid to buy Just Eat Takeaway.com for 4.1 billion euros ($4.8 billion).

Prosus announced its plans to purchase the Amsterdam-based food delivery platform in February, saying it would create the fourth-largest food delivery group globally.

The European Commission, the EU's antitrust regulator, gave the green light for the acquisition after Prosus offered commitments to address the bloc's concerns.

Prosus has stakes in food business across more than 70 countries including full ownership of iFood, Latin America's leading food delivery platform, plus stakes in Delivery Hero and China's Meituan.

One of Europe's most popular food delivery platforms, Just Eat Takeaway.com operates in 17 international markets.

The South African tech conglomerate Naspers Limited is the majority owner of Prosus.

The remedies offered by Naspers include significantly reducing its share in Delivery Hero, "below a specified very low percentage, within 12 months and to implement a set of additional commitments".

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The commission said it could not disclose the ownership percentage for Delivery Hero, a Just Eat rival.

Prosus currently holds a minority share of 27.4 percent in Delivery Hero.

"The divestment and additional commitments ensure that Naspers will have no influence over nor material interest in Delivery Hero's commercial decisions or strategy," the commission said in a statement.

Just Eat and Delivery Hero both offer online food delivery services in EU member states Austria, Bulgaria, Italy, Poland, and Spain.

"We had concerns that the acquisition... could allow the parties to coordinate their behaviour in the food delivery market, reducing competition and consumer choice," EU competition chief Teresa Ribera said.

"Today's binding commitments preserve both competition and consumer choice when ordering food at home," she said.

Source: AFP