Deliveroo unboxes £224m loss as its London stock market debut nears

Deliveroo has revealed that it has posted losses of £223.7 million, despite surging sales over the past year, as the takeaway delivery business announced plans for its stock market debut.

The firm saw transactions jump 64 per cent to £4.1 billion in 2020. Picture: Ben Stansall/AFP via Getty Images.

The Amazon-backed company has disclosed its expected intention to list in a move expected to value the company at more than £7 billion.

In a new filing, the company said it saw transactions rocket by 64 per cent to £4.1bn in 2020 as the pandemic helped to spark increased demand.

The company also reported a surge in restaurants seeking to use the platform, after sites were forced to close for dine-in customers for large parts of the year.

It said that more than six million people order through the 115,000 restaurants, cafes and stores on its platform each month.

Deliveroo revealed an underlying loss of £223.7 million for the year despite the jump in transactions, although this represented an improvement on its £317.3m underlying loss in 2019.

The company has continued to invest heavily in its expansion and currently covers about 800 locations in 12 countries.

Its filing also confirmed the group will list with a dual-class share structure, which will give founder Will Shu 20 votes per share and provide all other shareholders with one vote per share.

In a letter accompanying the float plan, Mr Shu said: "Now we take the next big step in our journey by allowing everyone to have a share in our future.

"That's why we are planning to take Deliveroo public here in London, the city where it all started, and we plan to offer our customers across the UK the chance to own a part of the business.

"We are proud to be enabling our customers to participate in a future float and have the chance to buy shares."

Neil Wilson, chief market analyst for Markets.com, flagged signs that Deliveroo “is becoming more efficient at getting things from A to B”.

He added that a shake-up of stock market listing rules combined with a valuation of around £7.5bn could mean the firm “joins the FTSE 100 in the not-too-distant future” – and that £50m worth of shares being earmarked for customers “will likely be in high demand”.

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