Deliveroo expresses plans of a London listing as business improves in 2020

Deliveroo announced plans of an initial public offering on Monday after expressing confidence that its business saw significant growth last year amidst the Coronavirus pandemic that restricted people to their homes. The food delivery company, however, still concluded 2020 with a loss.

The novel flu-like virus has so far infected more than 4.2 million people in the United Kingdom and caused over 124 thousand deaths. Deliveroo’s financial update comes on the same day when insurer Direct Line reported a decline in its pre-tax profit to £451 million in 2020.

Deliveroo’s IPO is expected to value the company at £5.06 billion

Deliveroo said that it expects to list its shares on the London Stock Exchange in an IPO that is likely to value the company at over £5.06 billion. The British firm’s initial public offering is expected to find a spot in the league of London’s largest listings in the past several years.

The British firm announced plans of a dual-class share structure for its initial public offering. Simply put, it wishes to have a standard listing and not a premium one, which closes the doors on it to be included in the FTSE indices.

The plan, however, is prone to change if recent recommendations by Jonathan Hill (former EU Commissioner) related to the listing rules are implemented. The announcement on Monday also named Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Bank of America, Jefferies, Citigroup, and Numis as book-runners and joint global coordinators for Deliveroo’s IPO.

Deliveroo’s full-year financial update on Monday

As per the food delivery company, its Gross Transaction Value jumped 64.3% in 2020 to £4.1 billion. In the previous year, its Gross Transaction Value stood at £2.5 billion. Deliveroo also boasted confidence that its underlying loss contracted to £223.7 million last year, compared to £317.3 in 2019.

Chief Executive Will Shu commented on the financial update on Monday and said:

“Today, Deliveroo is so much bigger than I ever would have thoughts possible. We are building delivery-only kitchens, delivering groceries, building tools for restaurants to take them into the digital age – things I never contemplated when we launched.”

In separate news from the United Kingdom, aircraft parts supplier, Senior plc, also said on Monday that it swung to an annual loss in 2020 due to the COVID-19 crisis that continues to curb travel and tourism.