A rider for food delivery company Deliveroo cycles down a sidewalk in Sydney September 1, 2017. — Reuters picLONDON, March 30 — Shares in Deliveroo plunged by as much as 30 per cent in their trading debut today, slicing more than £2 billion off the company’s valuation in a blow to the food delivery group and the London market for initial public offerings .
The 390 pence price tag gave an overall valuation of £7.6 billion and was already set at the bottom of an initial range. But the Amazon-backed company has been running at a hefty loss; it said it narrowed an underlying loss to £223.7 million, from £317.3 million in 2019. “That comes back to the issue that how could a company that was valued at £3 billion in November, £5 billion in January, be magically worth £8-9 billion in March — particularly when according to its own statements it was potentially in need of emergency funding last year,” Russ Mould, Investment Director at AJ Bell, said.