Just Eat profits more than double as it snaps up rivals and boosts orders

Just Eat, an online takeaway firm, said pre-tax profit more than doubled as it added orders and snapped up rivals.

The firm, which sells its online ordering platform to takeaway restaurants, said annual pre-tax profit came in at £91.3m ($111.5m), jumping by 164% on a year ago.

The group agreed to buy both UK rival hungryhouse for £200m and Canada's SkipTheDishes for £66m in December. It added that during the year it also bought businesses in Italy, Spain and Mexico.

It added that orders across the business on a like-for-like basis rose by 36% compared to a year ago.

Chief executive David Buttress said: "This reflects robust order growth across the business, strong cash generation and further underlying earnings margin expansion as we consolidated our market leadership in every geography where we operate."

He added that over the coming year the group expected to post sales of between £480m to £495m and underlying earnings ranging between £157m and £163m.

In February, the business announced Buttress would step down due to "urgent family matters" by the end of March.

Buttress helped launch the business in Britain 11 years ago and became chief executive in 2013. He will initially be replaced by chairman John Hughes, who has led the board for six years. The group is conducting a search for a new chief executive.