Deliveroo boss Will Shu sells practically £15m value of shares

Deliveroo boss Will Shu has sold nearly £15million of shares after the food delivery group turned a half-year profit for the first time.

Shu, who co-founded the business over a decade ago, sold 9.4m shares worth £14.8million between September 12 and September 16, the company revealed in a stock market disclosure.

The group said he did this to ‘cover personal property investments’ and he does not participate in the company’s annual bonuses or long-term share award schemes.

Shu, a former employee at investment bank Morgan Stanley, still owns 95.8m shares, or 5.9 per cent of the company, after the sale.

It comes one month after Deliveroo turned a half-year profit for the first time in what bosses described as a ‘major milestone’.

The food delivery group – branded ‘Flopperoo’ after its disastrous stock market float in 2021 – has seen a revival in performance lately.

Deliveroo shares have risen by almost 38 per cent over the past six months. But they remain less than half of their initial public offering price of 390p. They closed up 0.3 per cent, or 0.4p, at 157.3p yesterday.

Profits hit £1.3million for the first half of this year, compared with the £83million loss clocked for the same period last year. The number of orders placed over the six months rose 2 per cent to 147million.

Gross transaction value per order – which means the average cost of customers’ food baskets plus delivery fees – was £25, up from £24.20 the previous year.

This was mostly driven by restaurants and shops raising their prices – although inflation has cooled over the past year.

The company debuted on the London Stock Exchange in March 2021 amid a boost in business during the pandemic. During that time, restaurants were forced to close and far more customers ordered meals online.

But Deliveroo has had a tough time since then because it invested heavily in marketing, technology and head count.

Sales also slowed when consumers started to make their way back to pubs and restaurants after the lockdowns came to an end. 

Childhood friends Shu and Greg Orlowski teamed up to start the business back in 2013. Shu and other bosses were this year awarded their first pay increases since the stock market listing.

Top executives were earlier this year given a 3 per cent increase in basic pay, according to Deliveroo’s annual report, published in March. 

This bumped Shu’s annual pay up to £618,000 and chief financial officer Scilla Grimble’s to £515,000. For 2023, his overall pay package including pension and benefits totalled £675,000.

Shu previously sold £47million of shares in his company in December 2021 to meet tax liabilities. He had needed to pay a tax on restricted stock units as part of the firm’s listing earlier that year.

In June, Deliveroo was named as one of the many London-listed companies to be targeted for takeover this year.

There were reports it had been approached by San Francisco-based rival Doordash.

However the talks, which started in May, ended after a disagreement over price, according to Reuters.

At the time, analysts at Jefferies said this ‘may only be the start’ and could open the door to more takeover interest in Deliveroo, adding: ‘Such is the strength of the financial, industrial and strategic logic of a Deliveroo takeover, we would not be surprised to see similar such headlines re-emerge in the short term.’