Just Eat Takeaway says Q4 orders up 14%, repeats 2022 forecasts

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In a trading update, the company said it delivered 273.7 million orders in the fourth quarter of 2021, up from 240.4 million in the same period a year earlier.

Takeaway has come under pressure from investors to sell operations including U.S. subsidiary Grubhub as the group is making losses, and the boost that meal delivery companies received from increased orders during the COVID-19 pandemic has begun to fade.

Takeaway did not release its profit and loss figures on Wednesday, but Chief Executive Officer Jitse Groen confirmed that the company’s adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) had improved to a smaller loss than in the first half of 2021.

“We have markedly improved our adjusted EBITDA throughout the second half of 2021, and we will make further improvements this year,” he said in a statement.

Takeaway is due to report its full earnings on March 2.

In the first half of 2021, the company reported an adjusted EBITDA loss of 190 million euros on revenue of 2.6 billion euros.

Takeaway’s shares have fallen 11% so far in 2022, closing at 43.27 euros on Tuesday — far below their all-time high above 109 euros in October 2020.

The company said it had 28.2 billion euros in gross transaction value (GTV), a common industry metric, at the low end of a 28-30 billion euro range. And it confirmed a target of GTV growth in the mid-teens for 2022, with EBITDA margin improving to a negative 0.6%-0.8%, from a negative 1.3% in 2021.