GrubHub is already well known to the masses of office workers who rely on the company’s online food ordering services. Now it is hoping that investors are just as eager for what on its plate.
The company published a prospectus for its initial public offering on Friday, revealing the financial performance of divisions like Seamless and its namesake delivery service.
In the document, GrubHub said it was seeking to raise $100 million, a preliminary figure meant to calculate a filing fee. But it will most likely seek more, based on what it hopes will be continued growth.
The company reported $137.1 million in revenue last year, a jump of nearly 67 percent from the prior year. Its profit numbers, at least using generally accepted accounting principles, were a little less impressive, having fallen 24 percent last year to $5.7 million.
Using adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization — which strips out a number of accounting costs — provides a different picture. That figure more than doubled over the prior year, to $38.1 million in 2013.
And using a number of, shall we say, unique metrics showed that GrubHub was still growing rapidly. The company claimed 3.4 million active diners last year, up 243 percent from the prior year (though that is largely a function of the merger of GrubHub and Seamless last summer).
“Daily average grubs,” a cute name for revenue-generating orders divided by the number of days in a given reporting period, rose 74 percent to 107.9 million. According to the prospectus, the figure is important because it reflects how often customers order food from GrubHub services.
GrubHub plans to list itself on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “GRUB.” Its offering is being led by Citigroup and Morgan Stanley.