[ad_1]
Uber and Lyft have been fighting for years for customers in the fast-growing sector. Now, bitter rivals can fight for investors in their first public offerings.
Uber has received proposals from investment banks Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs that the tech giant could be worth up to $ 120 billion on an IOP, said Tuesday two people knowledgeable about this and who They were not allowed to discuss it publicly.
With $ 120 billion, Uber's debut on Wall Street would be the largest since the Chinese group Alibaba began trading on the New York Stock Exchange in 2014.
The IPOs technology market has grown in 2018. Nearly 200 companies have raised more than $ 53 billion in initial offers in US markets, making it the busiest year for Newcomers to the technology sector on Wall Street since 2014, according to Dealogic data.
But a blockbuster public offering on Uber, which has burned billions of dollars since its inception in 2009 and does not appear close to sustained profitability, would mark a significant increase in risk-taking for investors in publicly traded companies. stock Exchange.
Banks have also suggested that Uber could put its stock to trading on the stock market earlier than originally planned for the end of 2019. This would put pressure on the company's main rival in the United States, Lyft, which recently chose JPMorgan Chase to run his own business. initial public offering, said two other people informed about it who did not have the right to speak publicly about it.
This year, Lyft's latest round of fundraising valued the company at $ 15 billion. He had planned to go public in the spring, putting a distance between his I.P.O. and Uber's.
Now, companies could find themselves in a race to public markets, looking for investors eager to acquire a piece of two darlings of the technology industry. The company that goes first should have an advantage and could charge a higher price for its shares.
"The first round of sharing I.P.O. It's going to attract a lot of attention, so I think being the first to have marketing value is a marketing asset, "said Kathleen Smith, director of Renaissance Capital, which provides research services and manages funds. .
The potential value of Uber as part of a public offering and the underwriter of Lyft were first published by the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.
Uber's I.P.O. should be among the biggest financial events on Wall Street next year. With $ 120 billion, that would be equal to the total value of Facebook when it went public in 2012 with a market capitalization of $ 104 billion, said Ms. Smith.
Unlike Facebook in 2012, Uber is not profitable on a daily basis. Uber is trying to get rid of its most loss-making businesses since Dara Khosrowshahi became its chief executive last year and gave up on expensive expansion projects in Russia, China and Southeast Asia. Is.
The company made a profit in the first quarter of 2018 through the sale of some of these businesses, but the second quarter was a return to form. Uber announced a loss of $ 891 million, even as its bookings – the sum borne by drivers – had increased 41% over the previous year and its turnover was reaches $ 2.7 billion.
As a private company, Uber is not required to publicly disclose its quarterly results. But for some time now, he has revealed basic financial information to give investors a better idea of his health.
The valuation of $ 120 billion would also represent a huge leap from previous estimates. In December, the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank and a consortium of investors announced their intention to buy 17.5% of Uber at a price of about 33 dollars per share. That brought the value of Uber to about $ 48 billion.
At the time, Uber was struggling to overcome a number of management issues, and the investment in SoftBank represented a significant discount from previous rounds, which had cost the company up to $ 70 billion.
A $ 500 million investment by Toyota in August earned Uber $ 76 billion.
The San Francisco company is aggressively trying to expand its business for UberEats, its food delivery business, and is expanding its business to rent electric bikes and scooters, as well as to freight booking.
Lyft, which is also based in San Francisco, has always been Uber's smallest but toughest contender in the United States. It started expansion last year, and largely avoided the regulatory struggles and bad publicity that have affected Uber around the world. Like Uber, Lyft considers renting bicycles and scooters as a way to grow. She acquired Motivate, the owner of CitiBike, for $ 250 million in July.
Lyft said that the turnover for 2017 amounted to $ 1 billion – an increase of 168% over the previous year – but did not disclose its profits or his losses for the year. Financial analysts assume that Lyft, like Uber, has spent a lot of money.
Uber and Lyft both work on autonomous vehicles. Leaders believe that driverless cars could eliminate one of their major expenses: human drivers. But the technology is, for the moment, prohibitively expensive and far from widespread commercial use.
Uber has considered selling its autonomous vehicle unit, while Lyft has mainly used technology through partnerships.
A lack of profits should not scare investors. As in the Internet business boom nearly 20 years ago, Wall Street works with fast-growing but money-hungry tech companies.
"I think investors are going to be comfortable with Uber," Ms. Smith said. "The question is going to be at what price."
Michael de la Merced reported from London and Kate Conger reported from New York. Follow Michael de la Merced and Kate Conger on Twitter: @m_delamerced and @kateconger.
Matt Phillips contributed to the report in New York.
[ad_2]
Source link
