GLOBAL food delivery giant Just Eat Takeaway.com has said it processed 257 million orders in the first six months of the year - a jump of nearly a third - as many people were confined to their homes to slow the spread of coronavirus.

The Dutch firm said it's like-for-like pre-tax loss was 121 million euros (£109 million), on revenue that had increased by 44 per cent to just over one billion euros (£927 million).

Just Eat Takeaway is in the process of buying US peer Grubhub and said the deal will likely close in the first half of next year.

Chief executive Jitse Groen said: "Just Eat Takeaway.com is in the fortunate position to benefit from continuing tailwinds.

"The United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, the Netherlands, Australia, and Brazil are performing particularly strongly.

"Our businesses have healthy gross margins,and all our segments are adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) positive.

"On the back of the current momentum, we started an aggressive investment programme, which we believe will further strengthen our market positions.

"We are convinced that our order growth will remain strong for the remainder of the year."