Food delivery company Deliveroo could make Britain’s biggest stock market debut since commodities giant Glencore PLC went public nearly a decade ago, after setting a price range on Monday that values it at up to US$12-billion.
The Amazon-backed food delivery has been held up by the British government as a sign the City of London can still attract major initial public offerings after the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union.
It is set to be London’s biggest IPO since Glencore in May, 2011, according to data provided by the London Stock Exchange.
A London stock market listing by Allied Irish Banks in 2017 is excluded from the data as it had a small listing in Ireland at the time.
Deliveroo will also be the biggest tech IPO on the LSE, dwarfing The Hut Group from last year -- which had a £5.4-billion ($9.4-billion) market capitalization at time of listing -- and the since-delisted Worldpay Group from 2015.
Deliveroo said it had set a price range for its listing of between £3.90 and £4.60 a share, which will give it a market value of between £7.6-billion and £8.8-billion, excluding any shares offered as part of an overallotment issue.
An announcement to investors seen by Reuters said that the deal size would be £1.5-billion to £1.6-billion, rising to £1.7-billion after the overallotment of shares.
Of this, new shares will raise £1-billion for the company and the rest will be made up by existing shareholders selling part of their stake.
Deliveroo has opted not to pursue a premium listing -- ruling it out of inclusion in the FTSE indexes -- which allows founder and chief executive Will Shu to retain enhanced shareholder rights.
In a short trading update, Deliveroo added that the total gross transaction value on its platform - which measures the total value of orders it receives - was up 121 per cent in January and February this year compared with the same period in 2020.
“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,” Mr. Shu said in a statement.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. are global co-ordinators and bookrunners along with Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., Jefferies Group LLC and Numis Securities Ltd.
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