British takeaway delivery website debuts on stock market

British online takeaway delivery service Just Eat launched on the London Stock Exchange on Thursday in a partial flotation which valued it at £1.5 billion ($2.5 billion, 1.8 billion euros). Just Eat provides an online website to enable customers to buy food from their local takeaway restaurants, and takes a cut from delivery orders. Thursday's initial public offering (IPO), set at 260 pence per share, aims to raise gross proceeds of £360.1 million, Just Eat said in an official statement. The London-based group will sell 138 million shares, or about one quarter of its equity, raising £100 million for the business with early investors receiving the remaining funds. In conditional deals on Thursday, the share price rallied as high as 297.96 pence. It later stood at 283 pence in late afternoon trade. “I believe that Just Eat is one of the most exciting global growth companies in Europe and we are all delighted at the strong levels of investor interest we have seen in our initial public offering," said chief executive David Buttress. He added: "Investors have recognised our track record of strong growth and that we have a strong platform for future growth." Just Eat launched in Denmark in 2001 and is now active in 13 countries around the world. It offers an online ordering portal to connect about 36,000 takeaway restaurants to their customers. Just Eat generates almost £700 million of total transaction value per year for restaurants, and received a total of almost 40 million delivery orders in 2013, according to its website.