Just Eat misses on H1 revenue, maintains profitability forecasts

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A Just Eat delivery man rides his bicycle in Nice amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in France, February 16, 2021. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard/File Photo

By Toby Sterling

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -Just Eat Takeaway.com, Europe's largest meal delivery company, on Wednesday reported worse than expected revenue and a loss for the first half of 2022, but maintained its growth and margin forecasts for the full year.

Takeaway reported adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of negative 134 million euros ($136.20 million), compared with a loss of 189 million euros in the same period a year earlier.

Revenue came in at 2.78 billion euros ($2.83 billion), compared with 2.6 billion euros in the first six months of 2021, below analysts' expectation of 2.8 billion euros, according to Refinitiv data.

"Our path to profitability is accelerating and we expect to continue to materially improve our adjusted EBITDA in the second half of this year," Chief Executive Jitse Groen said.

Analyst Giles Thorne of Jefferies said the numbers were worse than expected, but investors may be reassured by the forward guidance -- depending on how well the company can justify it in the face of a weakening economy.

"There are reasons to believe the full year guidance is pretty robust," he said, noting that COVID-19 pandemic effects have faded and Takeaway and its competitors have been taking steps to improve profitability.

However "investment sentiment in this stock in particular is very fragile," Thorne said. Jefferies rates Takeaway a "buy".

The company reiterated that it is exploring the "full or partial" sale of Grubhub, the U.S. company it bought in 2021 for $7.3 billion.

Takeaway took a 3.5 billion euro impairment charge on Grubhub on Wednesday, recognising that sector valuations have fallen.

Last month, Just Eat struck a deal with Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) offering Amazon Prime users free delivery in the Grubhub app in the hope of restoring its competitiveness.

Takeaway's shares are down more than 60% this year, closing at 18.80 euros on Tuesday.

($1 = 0.9839 euros)