Without doubt, the biggest news to hit the hospitality industry this week, is the flotation of Deliveroo. The company announced it is expecting its stock flotation to value the firm at up to £8.8bn, which would make it the biggest London stock market debut in 10 years.
In a trading update, the food delivery company said it will price its shares at between 390p and 460p each, giving it a potential market capitalisation of £7.6billion to £8.8billion. It will make top bosses millionaires overnight and be the biggest deal of its kind since mining giant Glencore’s £38billion float in 2011.
The food delivery business has continued to benefit from consumers ordering food online during the pandemic. Over the past year, the total value of transactions processed on the Deliveroo app increased by 130% year-on-year in January in both the UK and Ireland, as well as by 112% in other markets.
According to Bighospitality.co.uk, the business intends to use the net proceeds from the issue of its new shares to invest in growth opportunities, including increasing the number of transactions where people buy their food online, the development of new innovations, and to further develop its growth businesses, in particular Editions, Plus and Signature.
“Becoming a public company will enable us to continue to invest in innovation, developing new tech tools to support restaurants and grocers, providing riders with more work and extending choice for consumers, bringing them the food they will love from more restaurants than ever before. This will help us in our mission to become the definitive food company. We have seen a strong start to 2021 and we are only at the start of an exciting journey in a large, fast-growing online food delivery market, with a huge opportunity ahead.”
Founder and CEO Will Shu
