Takeaway.com announces intention to float

The offering is expected to take place in the coming weeks. It will consist of a primary offering of newly issued shares worth €175m, and a secondary offering of existing shares held by the company's current shareholders.

The company's founder and CEO Jitse Groen, as well as backers Prime Ventures and Macquarie Capital, will be selling shareholders in the IPO, alongside the founders of Lieferando.de – acquired by Takeaway.com in 2012 – and senior management.

Groen intends to retain approximately 95% of the shares he held prior to the IPO, according to a statement published by the company.

Takeaway.com intends to use €40m of the proceeds to fund organic growth and consolidate market positions in Germany and other key markets; €22.5m will be used in relation to the recent acquisition of JustEat's Benelux arm, partly to repay outstanding amounts and also to fund the remainder of the purchase; and up to €20m will be used to repay a revolving credit facility.

Earlier this year, Takeaway.com had entered into a facility agreement of €47.5m, consisting of a €25m revolving credit facility and of a €22.5m bridge loan, used for the acquisition of JustEat's Benelux arm.

The group, which registered a €77m turnover last year with a 500-strong workforce, has been backed by Macquarie and Prime since 2014 and 2012 respectively. In 2012, Prime provided a €13m series-A round, while Macquarie led a €74m series-B round in which Prime acted as co-investor, and which served for the acquisition of German rival group Lieferando.

In August, the group abandoned its UK operations to focus on its more active markets across the Benelux and continental Europe. The positive cash impact generated from the closing of these operations is expected to amount to around €1m per year.

Merrill Lynch International and Morgan Stanley are acting as joint global coordinators and joint bookrunners for the IPO, while ABN Amro and UBS are joint bookrunners.

A successful IPO would see Takeaway.com follow in the footsteps of Just Eat, which was heavily backed by venture investors before listing in 2014. In the space of two years, its market cap has doubled to reach £3.8bn at the time of writing.

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