Just Eat share price jumps as group delivers tasty FY results

Shares in Just Eat Plc (LON:JE), the Danish online takeaway service which floated in London last spring, have jumped nearly three percent after the company delivered it fist set of full-year results as a listed company, reporting a 62 percent jump in revenues. As of 09:31 GMT, Just Eat’s share price had gained 2.92 percent to stand at 373.90p. The shares are trading comfortably above the float price of 260p.

Just Eat announced in a statement this morning that its revenues had soared 62 percent to £157 million in the year ended December 31, 2014, as compared with 2013, while underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) came in 131 percent higher at £32.6 million. The online takeaway service benefitted from a 52 percent rise in orders to 61.2 million, while the number of active users surged 37 percent year-on-year to 8.1 million.
The company’s mobile strategy is also paying off with 61 percent of Just Eat’s orders in the UK placed via mobile devices during the reported period, up from 43 percent in 2013. Just Eat added that orders via the company’s apps now accounted for 55 percent of those mobile orders.
Chair John Hughes called 2014 “a landmark year”, with the groups initial public offering last April having provided the company with “the financial strength to develop through acquisition, if opportunities to buy leading positions in markets of scale present themselves”. He, however, added that Just Eat’s short-term strategy was to continue to build its business via focusing on technology and innovation.
The takeaway service noted that its trading momentum had continued this year and forecast 2015 revenues at current exchange rates to marginally exceed £200 million. Just Eat added that it would look to capitalise on its positions both in established markets such as the UK and in markets such as France, Brazil and Spain where online ordering is still at an early stage.
As of 10:49 GMT, Tuesday, 17 March, Just Eat PLC share price is 368.75p.