Just Eat set for financial takeaway

City retail analysts said that Just Eat, founded in Denmark in 2001, will have a market value of between £700m and £900m.

It is the latest in a flurry of recent public listings that have included discount retailer Poundland, Pets at Home, online white goods retailer AO, and boohoo.com, the fashion website.

“I’m very pleased to be bringing Just Eat to market following several years of strong growth and expansion,” said David Buttress, Just Eat’s chief executive.

The company processes millions of online orders monthly, “which I believe makes us one of the most exciting global growth companies in Europe”, he said.

It is expected that the float will net windfalls for Buttress, aged 38, a former Coca-Cola executive who helped to launch the group’s UK business after joining in 2006, as well as the group’s founder, Klaus Nyengaard.

The company said the offer would give management, staff, former employees and early backers the chance to partly cash in on their investments.

The firm has not yet decided whether to apply for the official list of the London stock exchange, where it must float 25 per cent of its shares, or the “high growth” segment where it can make just 10 per cent available.

Just Eat’s network covers more than 36,000 takeaway restaurants across 13 countries, including Denmark, France, Spain, Ireland and Canada.

Last year, the business lifted underlying earnings 70 per cent to £30.2m on revenues up 57 per cent to £80.4m.

The company says the online takeaway market is worth £58 billion globally, and the business is piggy-backing on the increasing use of smartphones and tablet devices.

Just East said it was also looking at the “significant opportunity” of the takeaway food collection market.