For those who ploughed £1.5bn into the company today, it’s less amusing.
I fail to see the merits of waiting an hour for a delivered pizza costing £12 – £16, when one from Waitrose costs £3 or I bake my own for a few pence.
But ignore my biases, here’s what I found troubling from a glance at their prospectus:
– Risk factors went on for 24 pages! – there’s a clue.
– Their accumulated loss is £1.1bn – they’ve never made money & almost every £ of the £1.3bn invested by previous shareholders has been spent funding losses, leaving equity of only £175m.
-They even lost £226m in 2020 when we were all locked down, restaurants were shut & revenue grew 54% .
If it’s not scaleable, what’s the point of growth?
– Underlying revenue is 29% of the Gross Transaction Value – so they take 29% of orders & still lose money?
While classifying “riders” as independent contractors thereby minimizing their tax & pension costs – for how much longer?
And
“We face significant competition.. from existing, well established & well-capitalised online food delivery platforms & other global Internet platforms”
Unappetising!