Deliveroo set to be biggest London flotation in nearly 10 years

Having confirmed its intention to float earlier this month, Deliveroo has announced an initial public offering with a price that values the company at £8.8b, which reports suggest would make it the biggest London stock market debut since Glencore nearly 10 years ago.

The price range for the offer has been set at £3.90 to £4.60 per share, valuing Deliveroo at between £7.6b and £8.8b. The offer will consist of up to 384,615,384 shares, with new shares expected to raise approximately £1b, which will be used to invest in the company's growth, in particular its Editions, Plus and Signature brands.

However, in its prospectus Deliveroo revealed it was involved in legal proceedings regarding the classification of its riders in the UK, France, Spain, the Netherlands and Italy. Its riders are currently classed as independent contractors, however should the group be forced to classify riders as employees, entitling them to minimum wage and paid holidays and sick leave, the group said the business would be "adversely affected".

Will Shu, founder and chief executive of Deliveroo, said: "We are proud to be listing in London, the city where Deliveroo started. Becoming a public company will enable us to continue to invest in innovation, developing new tech tools to support restaurants and grocers, providing riders with more work and extending choice for consumers, bringing them the food they love from more restaurants than ever before. This will help us in our mission to become the definitive food company. We have seen a strong start to 2021 and we are only at the start of an exciting journey in a large, fast-growing online food delivery market, with a huge opportunity ahead."

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