After a long hibernation, the initial public offering (IPO) market sprang back to life in 2014 with a slew of flotations, large and small. One of the most high profile was Just Eat, the online takeaway service, which was the first stock to IPO on the new high-growth segment, launched last year by the London Stock Exchange. Use of the new market made Just Eat stand out, and so did its £1.47bn ($2.47bn) valuation, equivalent to 100 times its underlying earnings.
Founded by five Danish entrepreneurs in 2001, the company has grown exponentially in the intervening years. In the past three years alone, revenues tripled to almost £100m while earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation surged from £99,000 to £14m. More than 36,000 restaurants have signed up to the Just Eat technology platform and the group processed about 40 million orders in 2013, mainly in the UK but also in 12 other countries including Belgium, Canada, Spain, Denmark and even India.
