Sections

ideals
Business Essentials for Professionals



Companies
10/12/2018

Uber Files Confidentiality Papers For IPO: Reports




Uber Files Confidentiality Papers For IPO: Reports
According to media reports, the much awaited initial public offering (IPO) of Uber Technologies Inc is set to launch anytime soon as the company has reportedly filed paperwork for the purpose. This IPO has gain investors’ attention because of the controversial and fast growing nature of Uber. 
 
The confidential paper work was filed by the ride-hailing company in lock-step along with its smaller U.S. rival, Lyft Inc. The later has announced the filing of the IPO late last week and investors are expecting this IPO to be amongst the largest ever for in the tech industry.
 
The confidential paper findings furthers the already fierce rivalry between Uber and Lyft, as both the companies have often launched similar looking services as a mark of their rivalry and have tried to overtake each other on the basis of prices.
 
The IPO could propel the valuation of Uber to about $120 billion – much higher than the most recent valuation of the company at about $76 billion. This listing by Uber is believed to be the first among a series of such public listings and the Uber listing is also expected to be the largest. Investors and analysts expect further IPOs from companies like the apartment-renting tech firm Airbnb and Slack, the workplace messaging firm.
 
According to analysts, Uber’s public listing would also show the extent to which investors are willing to accept and tolerate legal and workplace controversies. These are issues that have plagued the company for most part of the current year and all eyes have been on the newly appointed Chief Executive of the firm Dara Khosrowshahi and his plans of satging a turnaround for the company. Khosrowshahi took charge of the company just over a year ago.
 
A deadline of September 30 next year is the scheduled date for Uber to launch for IPO. The most recent news of its filing of confidential papers shows that the  company is on track to launch it much before the cut off date.
 
The planned IPOs from Uber and Lyft will also give analysts an understanding to the degree to which the investors have the appetite for the ride-hailing business because while the business has been very popular across the world, most of the ventures have more or less been non-profitable so far.
 
Struggling with slow growth, Uber posted a loss of $1 billion in the third quarter even the huge scale of its business is reflected by its gross bookings which was worth $12.7 billion in the same period. In the aforesaid quarter, Uber also generated revenues of $2.95 billion which was 5 per cent more than the previous quarter against bookings growth of 6 per cent quarter-on-quarter for the third quarter. . 
 
Since 2010, about $18 billion has been raised by Uber from various investors and is under pressure from such investors of going public. . 
 
The Japanese investment firm SoftBank made an investment in Uber last January that gave the investor a 15 per cent stake in the ride hailing firm. The investment conditions also mandate that Uber becomes public by September 30 2019 or else there is a risk of imposition of restrictions on shareholder stock transfers to expire.
 
(Source:www.economictimes.com)

Christopher J. Mitchell

Markets | Companies | M&A | Innovation | People | Management | Lifestyle | World | Misc