Just Eat Orders Drop in Latest Quarter Amid Online Food Slowdown

April Roach and Saksha Menezes, Bloomberg News

A Just Eat Takeaway.com NV Lieferando.de food delivery cyclist collects a customer order from a Subway Restaurants sandwich store in Berlin, Germany, on Monday, May 24, 2021. The online food delivery sector has emerged as one of the few industries to flourish during the pandemic, as restaurants stay shut and people get tired of pasta. , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Just Eat Takeaway.com NV’s shares jumped after the firm said it still expects growth later this year and as rising profitability offsets a drop in orders.

The total value of orders placed on Amsterdam-based Just Eat’s platform in the fourth quarter was

7.11 billion ($7.7 billion), the company reported Wednesday, compared to an average analyst estimate of €7.31 billion.

Just Eat’s shares in Amsterdam gained as much as 16% and were trading up 11% as of 9:40 a.m. local time. They were as much as 120% higher than an October low.

The food delivery company said it expects to deliver a positive adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of around €225 million in 2023, with growth skewed toward the end of the year.

What Bloomberg Intelligence Says:

The company’s 2023 earnings guidance is particularly “eye-catching,” according to Jefferies analyst Giles Thorne. “Not only are the consensus upgrades large, the guide neither compromises on growth investments nor is divorced from macro pressures,” Thorne said.

Orders fell 12% in the fourth quarter to 239.8 million, missing the estimate of 261 million orders in a Bloomberg survey.

Just Eat Takeaway’s recent efforts to consolidate have led it to partner with UK supermarket J Sainsbury Plc, Turkish startup Getir Perakende Lojistik A.S. and Domino’s Pizza Inc. Food delivery firms saw their shares collapse last year, with investors turned off by their steep losses at a time when borrowing costs soared. Their growth slowed significantly as pandemic-fueled sales waned and companies cut back on promotions.

“We’re growing as fast as we can,” Chief Executive Officer Jitse Groen said in a call with journalists. “I think it’s always difficult when you’ve grown disproportionately fast in two pandemic years to keep that up. We have adjusted the company to not be in a pandemic anymore.”

Groen said the company continues to actively explore the possible sale of its US-based Grubhub unit.

(Updates with shares and analyst quote)