A few days after its listing on the stock exchange, Deliveroo stumbles upon the protests of the riders and worries large investors who fear it is not socially sustainable. It is the first time that discontent negatively affects the financial values of a company.
Today the company, which specializes in the delivery of lunches and dinners at home, lowered the proposed price for its debut on the London market next Wednesday. The British agency Bloomberg spoke of a choice linked to the claims of the riders, “the bellboys” who physically carry out the deliveries. According to reports, some of the City’s top asset managers have raised concerns that Deliveroo would not fit into the socially sustainable investment schemes. This means that some large investment funds may not be able to buy the company’s stock.
The Deliveroo IPO is also eagerly awaited because it is a candidate to become the largest of recent times in London, since 2011 with the debut of the construction giant Glencore.
On Wednesday, during the first trading day, Deliveroo may have to deal with the street demonstrations of hundreds of riders. The risk is that the protests will alienate investors, even the smallest ones. For this reason the company has lowered the values of the initial price range which thus goes from 3.90 – 4.60 pounds to 3.90 – 4.10 pounds. In practice, the upper level of the range has been reduced to make the title more attractive. This operation is expensive, however, because if initially the estimated value for the post-listing company was set at 8.9 billion pounds (10.4 billion euros), now this level has dropped to 7.8 billion pounds. The company justified its decision to revise the price downwards with the volatility in the markets.
Meanwhile, in Italy the Just Eat riders will have the logistics contract: an agreement between JustEatTAKEAWAY.com Express Italy Srl, and the categories of Cgil, Cisl, Uil of transport and atypical workers provides for it. «It is an important result, which – affirm Cgil, Cisl, Uil – restores the right dignity to the activity of these workers, affirming rights and fair contractual protections. Just Eat Takeaway has agreed to apply the Logistics CCNL to the riders in full, articulating the various clauses and the need for greater organizational flexibility with a company agreement. Just Eat riders thus become employees ».
“We are satisfied with the positive result that testifies to the common desire to approach a growing sector in a constructive and sustainable way to the advantage of all the players in this industry: riders first of all but also restaurants and operators such as Just Eat” commented Daniele Contini, Country Just Eat Manager in Italy.
“A great deal of work has been done on both sides of dialogue, listening and understanding of each other’s needs, and thanks to the agreed guidelines, riders are now guaranteed additional protection and safety and our reality is the compatibility of the new CCNL in the Logistics sector. Transport, Goods and Shipping with the economic structure of the company, and therefore the consequent sustainability of the industry »said Davide Bertarini, Head of Business Delivery of Just Eat in Italy.