The British meal delivery company Deliveroo wants to increase the capital by 1 billion pounds (almost 1.2 billion euros) at its IPO in London. Deliveroo confirmed this on Monday.
The IPO that Deliveroo announced last week should yield the British courier 1 billion pounds. The IPO is expected in April, after an all-time record year for the company. The corona virus had closed the hospitality industry in many countries, leaving restaurants and consumers dependent on platforms such as Deliveroo and its competitors Uber Eats and Just Eat Takeaway.com. The 6 million Deliveroo users ordered 4.1 billion pounds of dishes in 2020, 64.3 percent more than in 2019.
There will be two types of Deliveroo shares, with founders having more say in voting than other shareholders.
In addition to £ 1 billion in new shares, existing shares of current shareholders will also be offered, Deliveroo said. The meal delivery company confirmed that there will be two types of shares, with founders having more say in voting than other shareholders. This is how the company wants to guarantee continuity after the IPO. Three years after listing, those shares will change into ‘ordinary’ shares.
Loss
Despite the success, the meal courier is not yet able to make a profit. Deliveroo takes a commission per order on the amount that the customer pays. That generated 1.2 billion pounds of sales, 54 percent more than in 2019. Deliveroo says it has to invest a lot in marketing and technology, so the sales growth does not automatically mean a profit. It could mitigate the loss: the gross profit (EBITDA) shrank from 231 million pounds to 9.6 million pounds.
Deliveroo was valued at more than $ 7 billion by investors in a January funding round. The company hopes to benefit from a favorable environment for takeaway services, following the example of Doordash, which went public in December. Despite the hefty introductory price of $ 102, the American meal delivery company DoorDash jumped 78 percent higher on its stock market debut.
But now that vaccination gets up to speed, the optimism that the pandemic will fade away is growing. This immediately translates into the stock market: shares of lockdown winners have been hit in recent months. Just Eat Takeaway.com fell 22 percent from its high in October. US Delivery Hero is down 28 percent since its peak in January.
