Just Eat lifts FY revenue guidance after strong first half

Just Eat bumped up its revenue guidance for this year on Thursday as it posted a 44% jump in revenue for the first half.

In the six months to 30 June, the online food delivery marketplace said revenues rose to £246.6m from £171.6m in the same period a year ago, with orders up 24% to 80.4m and like-for-like orders up 25%. Barclays had expected revenues of £230m for the half.

Pre-tax profit increased 46% to £49.5m and basic earnings per share came in at 5.5p from 3.7p the year before.

Interim chairman Andrew Griffith said: "This has been another excellent period of progress with revenues, profits and earnings all showing strong growth and once again demonstrating the strength of our business model.

"Today's results, the recent appointment of Peter Plumb as chief executive officer and the very substantial headroom for further growth in all of our territories mean that we are exceptionally well-placed as we enter the second half of the year."

With first-half revenues ahead of management's expectations, the group lifted its revenue guidance for 2017 to between £500m and £515m from a previous range of £480m to £495m. Just Eat said it plans to reinvest this revenue outperformance into additional profitable growth opportunities, including further building on the momentum within the business and increased collaboration with branded UK restaurants. As a result, its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation for the year are still expected to be between £157m and £163m.

Numis pointed out that revenue was ahead of consensus by 6% but EBITDA was 2% below.

At 1120 BST, the shares were down 4% to 685p.