Will Shu sells £15m of Deliveroo shares

The founder and chief executive of Deliveroo has sold shares worth almost £15 million a month after the food delivery group delivered its maiden profit.
The company said that Will Shu, 44, sold 9.4 million shares between September 12 and September 16, worth a total of £14.8 million, to “cover personal property investments”. Following the sale, he retains 95.8 million shares, the group said, adding that Shu does not take part in its annual bonuses or long-term share award schemes.
The sale comes a month after Deliveroo turned a profit for the first time and launched a £150 million share buyback. Its shares have risen by almost 30 per cent in the past 12 months.
For the six months to the end of June, the company reported a profit of £1.3 million, against an £82.9 million loss in the same period a year earlier.
The number of orders placed over the period rose 2 per cent to 147 million as food price increases and the cost of living squeeze began to ease, while its gross transaction value — the total value of all goods sold — rose by 5 per cent to £3.69 billion.
Founded in London in 2013, Deliveroo has come a long way from its humble beginnings when Shu, an American-born former banker, personally delivered pizzas to friends. Today the company is publicly listed, operating in ten markets with 140,000 delivery riders and partnering with about 180,000 restaurants.
It has had a turbulent life as a public company, with its float in April 2021 becoming something of a high-profile disaster. The shares floated at 390p with a value of £7.6 billion but fell by 30 per cent on the first day of dealings amid fears over the sustainability of its business model and concerns over the legal status of its riders.
Deliveroo was highly successful during the pandemic, when hospitality venues were forced to close. However, the cost of living crisis led to a decline in orders and it has since been expanding its range of non-food products. Last month it partnered with B&Q to deliver home improvement goods in as little as 25 minutes within London.
Shares were untroubled by Shu’s sell-off and closed up ½p, or 0.25 per cent, at 157¼p.