Just Eat and Takeaway.com have reached “an agreement in principle” for the Dutch company to take over the UK online food delivery firm in a deal that would value Just Eat at £5bn (Financial Times £). The combination would look appetising if the price was right but a soaring Just Eat share price yesterday outstrips the premium on offer and a counterbid may be in the offing, says Lex in the Financial Times (£). The columns says antitrust concerns might deter the likes of UberEats, but it says Naspers or private equity players could show interest. The Daily Mail throws Softbank and Delivery Hero into the frame as possible gate-crashers. Analysts said the merger wasn’t “exactly a slam dunk”. The Guardian says a bid from Uber Eats or Deliveroo would raise competition issues.

News of the talks contributed to a heady day for the FTSE 100 which soared by almost 2% to an 11-month high but concerns about a no-deal Brexit led to a drop in sterling to its lowest in two years (The Times £). Just Eat closed up 22.7% at 780p. Little-known activist investor Cat Rock Capital is likely to reap a “lip-smacking” return after it bought a 2.5% of Just Eat in December and started agitating for a sale (The Times £). It has a 4.1% stake in Takeaway.com – its second-largest investor.

Several hedge funds that bet against Just Eat got caught short, including Platinum Investment Management – the biggest loser. Those betting against Just East took a collective paper loss of abut £75m (The Telegraph). The BBC asks “why the huge appetite for Just Eat?” Sky News reminds readers that it was the news channel to reveal at the weekend how the companies were close to agreeing a tie-up.

Beyond Meat announced after hours that its early shareholders would be selling another chunk of stock – 3m-3.49m shares from stockholders and 250,000 new shares from the company, just a couple of months after its initial public offering when nearly 10m shares were offered (Financial Times £). Beyond Meat “stuns” with stock sale plan, says Reuters. The shares crumbled on the stock offering surprise, while demand for meatless burgers soars. Trading was volatile and shares fell more than 12% after hours (Reuters).

Heineken’s shares fell 6% by early afternoon in Amsterdam to about €97 after the brewer missed profit forecasts. Its 0.3% increase in operating profit, excluding exceptional items, to €1.78bn was well below the €1.91bn or 6.6% growth analysts expected, according to Bloomberg (Financial Times £). Beer sales volumes increased in all regions except Europe, where it suffered from the absence this year of the World Cup which boosted the previous year’s sales (The Times £).

The convergence of supermarkets, restaurants and takeaways is gathering pace. The Telegraph says what is happening in China is a good benchmark for what is happening in the UK. The line dividing grocery and takeaway is increasingly blurred.

Waitrose is to ban the sale of birds shot with lead because of the risk to human health and wildlife from consuming such products. Experts have called on the government to ban the use of lead bullets (The Guardian).

Declines for high street shops and shopping centres have driven the largest quarterly slide in British prime commercial property rents in a decade, CBRE has reported (The Times £). Rents for high street shops fell 1.1% in the three months to the end of June. Shopping centre rents fell 1.2% and retail warehouses 3.1%.

Selfridges has opened its Christmas shop for those who want to recover from the heatwave with some wintry seasonal cheer (The Guardian).

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