TAKEAWAY.COM reported a sharp rise in revenue ahead of its merger with UK peer Just Eat.

Net revenue surged 79 per cent to €415.9m (£345.4m), fuelled by growth and its €930m acquisition of Delivery Hero's German operations in April.

Takeaway processed 159.2m orders in 2019, a 70 per cent increase. The average commission rate also increased to 12.6 per cent, driven by an increase in commission rates in some locations.

Takeaway declared its £6.02bn takeover of Just Eat last month and is awaiting final approval from the UK's Competition and Markets Authority.

However investors were less than pleased, as shares of the merged firm fell 3.5 per cent to 7,965p yesterday.

Neil Wilson, chief markets analyst at Markets.com, said: "Just Eat Takeaway.com is not providing guidance because of the material impact of the merger. Go figure that one out."

He added: "Shareholders would expect the company to know what it's letting itself in for. You'd think they understand the impact of the merger on revenues. On that basis, reporting the past numbers are kind of irrelevant. How do shareholders figure out value?" Chief executive Jitse Groen said: "For the first time since our [listing], the company ended the year with a positive adjusted earnings. Achieving this by the end of the third quarter was one of the medium-term targets in our [listing] prospectus."

(c) 2020 City A.M., source Newspaper