DELIVERY site Takeaway.com has accused Prosus, the company it is competing against to buy Just Eat, of "scaremongering" to try to persuade shareholders to accept its rival offer.

The Dutch food delivery firm has had its £5bn bid for Just Eat accepted but tech group Prosus entered a rival 710p per share offer last month.

Takeaway.com chief executive Jitse Groen said Prosus has made "a number of claims over the last few weeks in an attempt to make its highly opportunistic cash offer for Just Eat appear more attractive".

These included "contradictory assertions" about how much money would need to be put into Just Eat.

He also said Prosus had overstated the risk for shareholders in remaining invested in the Londonlisted company, "while itself wanting to assume those apparent costs and risks", and said lenders "must not be fooled".

Groen's statement echoed a similar warning yesterday from 2.6 per cent Just Eat shareholder Cat Rock, a private equity firm.

Cat Rock said in a letter to fellow shareholders that Prosus had overplayed Just Eat's challenges as a way to justify a low-ball bid.

(c) 2019 City A.M., source Newspaper