Deliveroo plans a London stock market listing that could value the British food delivery firm at around $7 billion and mark the biggest new share issue in Britain in three years.
It said it will use a dual-class share structure for the first three years of the listing, which will give co-founder and chief executive Will Shu more control over the company.
This means Deliveroo will not initially be eligible for a “premium” listing that would allow it to join the major FTSE indices, although it said in a statement on Thursday it will move to a single structure after three years.
The Deliveroo IPO is one of the most eagerly watched-for initial public offerings (IPOs) expected in London in the first half of 2021, after petcare firm IVC Evidensia abandoned its immediate IPO plans in favour of private funding.
Dual-class share structures are a common feature of listed technology companies in the United States but are frowned on by some British investors as they can give executives outsized influence on shareholder votes relative to their stake sizes.
Britain signalled this week that companies may soon be eligible for a “premium” listing using a dual-class structure after a review commissioned by Finance Minister Rishi Sunak, although not in time for Deliveroo’s listing.
Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan are leading the deal, while Bank of America, Citi, Jefferies and Numis are also part of the syndicate of banks managing the transaction, sources told Reuters earlier this year.
-Reuters