The German takeaway delivery group that is selling its British-based Hungryhouse business to Just Eat is to raise €450 million in an initial public offering on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
The proposed listing of Delivery Hero, expected to be valued at about €4 billion despite making a loss, comes as the Competition and Markets Authority investigates the £240 million sale of Hungryhouse.
Delivery Hero, founded in 2011, is one of Europe’s largest online-based start-ups, with 6,000 employees in more than 40 countries in Europe, the Middle East, the Americas and Asia-Pacific. It generally offers ordering for restaurants that do deliveries, although in several cities it has its own delivery service. It has 150,000 restaurant partners, compared with 71,000 for the London-based Just Eat.
The IPO will consist of the issue of about €450 million of new shares to pay off “certain financial liabilities” and put the group in a net cash position. Shareholders will also sell shares. Delivery Hero has gone through several private fundraisings. Rocket Internet, a German investor, holds 35 per cent of the stock and Naspers, a South African media group, recently bought 10 per cent for €387 million, valuing the company at €2.88 billion.
The IPO, which will list in Luxembourg and conduct private placements elsewhere, will be handled by Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, with UniCredit Bank, Berenberg, Jefferies and UBS acting as additional joint bookrunners.
Advertisement
The company’s underlying losses narrowed from €175 million to €116 million in 2016.