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Prosus to acquire Just Eat for €4.1bn: Global technology company Prosus has reached a conditional agreement to acquire Just Eat, to create the fourth largest food delivery group globally. Prosus intends to acquire Just Eat’s entire issued share capital for €20.30 per share via a recommended all-cash public offer on the Amsterdam exchange. This represents a 49% premium to the three-month volume-weighted average price as of 21 February 2025, and a 22% premium to Just Eat’s highest share price over the last three months. Prosus stated: “Acquiring Just Eat provides a unique opportunity to extend the leadership of a strong European food delivery platform, complementing Prosus’ existing food delivery footprint outside of Europe. Just Eat has a deep connection to its customer base and has developed some of the most loved food delivery brands in Europe. Its success within the United Kingdom, Germany and The Netherlands, has led to profitable, cash generative operations, with considerable growth potential, which Prosus intends to build upon. As a leading global food delivery investor and operator, with a proven track record in successfully scaling ecommerce platforms, Prosus is well positioned to invest in and accelerate growth at Just Eat to unlock value beyond its stand-alone potential as a listed business. Prosus’s highly effective growth strategy at iFood, in Brazil, provides a ready guide to transform Just Eat’s growth path through renewed focus across technology, product features, demand generation, offer quality and service. In particular, Prosus’ artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities have been fundamental to the success of iFood. The implementation of AI has revolutionised operations at iFood and enhanced the customer experience and support for drivers, making it the most loved brand in Brazil. Similar opportunities exist at Just Eat to improve the customer and driver experience, boost service reliability, and optimise logistics.” Prosus chief executive Fabricio Bloisi said: “We are excited for Just Eat to join the Prosus Group and the opportunity to create a European technology champion. Prosus already has an extensive food delivery portfolio outside of Europe and a proven track record of profitable growth through investment in our customer and driver experiences, restaurant partnerships, and world-class logistics, powered by innovation and AI. We believe that combining Prosus’ strong technical and investment capabilities with Just Eat’s leading brand position in key European markets will create significant value for our customers, drivers, partners, and shareholders.” Just Eat chief executive Jitse Groen added: “Just Eat is now a faster growing, more profitable and predominantly European-based business. Prosus fully supports our strategic plans, and its extensive resources will help to further accelerate our investments and growth across food, groceries, fintech and other adjacencies. We are looking forward to an exciting future together.” Dick Boer, chairman of the supervisory board of Just Eat, said: “The supervisory board unanimously supports the offer and is confident this outcome is in the best interest of Just Eat and all its stakeholders. Just Eat will benefit from Prosus’ significant financial resources to support investment in the business with a long-term investment horizon. Following a diligent and carefully executed process, Just Eat’s supervisory board is of the opinion that Prosus has made a compelling offer representing an attractive cash premium to Just Eat’s shareholders, as well as favourable non-financial terms and commitments in respect of deal certainty.”

Premium Club members to receive Multi-Site Database with 3,335 operators and 24 new companies on Friday: Premium Club members are to receive the Multi-Site Database on Friday (28 February). The next Propel Multi-Site Database provides details of 3,335 multi-site operators and is now searchable in seven main segments. The database features 972 (29%) operators from the casual dining sector, 790 (24%) pubs and bars, 569 (17%) cafe bakery, 466 (14%) quick service restaurants, 273 (8%) hotel, 210 (6%) experiential leisure and 55 (2%) fine dining. It is updated each month, and this edition includes 24 new companies. New additions to the casual dining sector include Welsh restaurant Group Redefining Dining Co, Birmingham Indian restaurant Indian Café Racer and south west restaurant operator The Beach House Group. Premium Club members also receive access to five additional databases: the New Openings Database, the Turnover & Profits Blue Book, the UK Food and Beverage Franchisor Database, the UK Food and Beverage Franchisee Database and the Who's Who of UK Hospitality. All Premium Clubs members will be offered a 20% discount on tickets to Propel paid-for events including Excellence in Pub Retail (May 2025) and discounts on specialist sector reports such as the Propel 500 and International Brands report. Operators that are Premium Club members are also able to send up to four members of staff to each of our four Multi-Club Conferences for free. Premium Club members receive their daily Propel Info newsletter 11 hours earlier than standard subscribers, at 7pm the evening before. They also receive videos of presentations at eight Propel conference events two weeks after they are held. This represents around 100 videos of industry insight over the course of the year. Premium Club members will be sent a dedicated monthly newsletter that will highlight key updates in the sector and direct subscribers to all the vital content their membership offers. Premium Club members also receive exclusive opinion columns every Friday at 5pm, which include the thoughts of Propel group editor Mark Wingett and a host of industry leaders from across the sector. A Premium Club subscription costs an annual sum of £495 plus VAT for operators and £595 plus VAT for suppliers. Companies can now have an unlimited number of people receive access to Premium Club for a year for £995 plus VAT – whether they are an operator or supplier. Email kai.kirkman@propelinfo.com today to sign up.

D&D London to rebrand to The Evolv Collection, bring Bluebird to City of London: D&D London, the Breal Capital and Calveton-backed operator of 20 restaurants and a hotel across the UK and internationally, is to change its name to “The Evolv Collection” in April, alongside a new company logo. The company will also bring its Bluebird brand to the City in April. A spokesman for D&D stated: “It is an appropriate time for the company to evolve into its new corporate identity. From our early roots as part of Sir Terence Conran’s pioneering restaurant empire, via D&D London, and now into The Evolv Collection, our new name reflects our commitment to a forward thinking mindset for our collection of iconic venues. We constantly strive to evolve and innovate our guest experiences, our products and our environments. And, most importantly on our quest to be the market leading premium restaurant company we never want to think we have arrived, we must constantly evolve and never take success for granted. Our new logo when revealed will represent a continuous cycle of change, growth and speed.” As well as the new identity, a new improved Evolv loyalty club (replacing Club D&D) and a new company website will also be launched. Board director Simon Wilkinson commented: “Our strategy for year two of our ownership was always about accelerating the pace of change/implementation within the business and growth. April is an exciting milestone for the business, as well as these changes we will also launch Bluebird in the City, which replaces the restaurant 3SP at South Place Hotel, home of the Michelin-starred Angler restaurant. Bluebird City will be a sister concept to the iconic Bluebird Chelsea, re-enforcing Bluebird as a truly British/London brand, thriving on both sides of our capital city.”

Center Parcs ‘seeing high demand among big-spending’ millennials: Center Parcs has said it is seeing high demand from big-spending millennials. Chief executive Colin McKinlay told The Times while there was high demand across all levels, the higher-end premium accommodation was becoming more popular with guests, who were now spending more during their visits than ever before. He said there was a “real resilience” among its guest base, “which does seem to be bucking the trend of the things we are reading more generally about consumer confidence”. Center Parcs, which operates holiday villages in Cumbria, Nottinghamshire, Wiltshire, Suffolk, Bedfordshire and in Longford Forest in Ireland, announced plans for its seventh village in Scotland last year. The business has been owned by Canadian property group Brookfield since 2015. The number of repeat bookings Center Parcs receives is at its highest level on record, McKinlay added, with 65% of guests having visited before. A total of 13% of its guests have been ten or more times. As millennials, who are in their late 20s to early 40s, now make up the biggest chunk of Center Parcs’ guest base, naturally Generation Z is its next target market. To engage with the generation, the company is “evolving our guest communication channels” using TikTok and partnering with influencers. Demand has been driven, in part, by the company’s investment in accommodation, amenities and activities, McKinlay said, pointing to the success of its spas. All six of Center Parcs’ holiday villages have Aqua Sana spas, offering experiences from hot stone areas to treetop sauna rooms, which the company has been rigorously marketing to external users since last year. The company has seen “phenomenal” growth since, with external guest volumes at its spas now up 30%. McKinlay said: “The spa business is a very big growth opportunity for us. It’s one that five years ago would have made up less than 10% of our profit, and already it makes up more than 10%.” The company said it may consider developing the brand further outside of its villages.

‘Dartford Disneyland’ theme park disaster lands taxpayer with £5m bill: The taxpayer lost £5m on a doomed attempt to create a £3.5bn Disneyland rival on the Thames Estuary, it has emerged. The Future Fund, the £1.1bn vehicle championed by then chancellor Rishi Sunak that invested in more than 1,000 companies during the pandemic, has lost its whole investment after the company behind the theme park was wound up, reports The Telegraph. The London Resort nicknamed the “Dartford Disneyland” was backed by the Hollywood giant Paramount and was the first commercial site in Britain to be designated as a nationally important infrastructure project. Due to be built in Swanscombe, Kent, and backed by the Kuwaiti tycoon Abdulla Al-Humaidi, it planned to build attractions based on classic films such as The Godfather and The Italian Job. However, the plans were partially scuppered by conservation campaigners and the discovery of a rare species of jumping spider around the site. Accounts for London Resort Company Holdings show it received £5m from the Future Fund, the maximum investment the covid-era vehicle could make in a company, in 2020. Under the terms of the fund, loans which were matched by private investors would then convert into equity stakes when a company later raised financing. The London Resort was added to a list of the fund’s investments in 2023, indicating the taxpayer loan had been converted to shares in the company. Last month, the company was wound up by a judge after a protracted legal battle. Paramount had sued the company for unpaid debts and the company breached repayment agreements with creditors. The Future Fund did not make investment decisions but would match funding when companies raised funds from private sources. It was set up during the pandemic to provide support for loss-making start-ups that would not qualify for other support schemes.