Lyft Valued $24.3 Billion Ahead of Tomorrow's IPO, Becoming the First Ride-Hailing Company to Go Public

resource from: Reuters   

Lyft Inc. will become the first ride-hailing company to go public. Ahead of its Friday IPO, Lyft is reportedly pricing its stock at $72 per share, according to the New York Times. A price of $72 per share would value the ride-hailing firm at $24.3 billion.

San Francisco-based Lyft will begin trading on the Nasdaq exchange on Friday, under the ticker symbol LYFT .

The price is a bit higher than what Lyft filed with the SEC on Wednesday. Lyft initially set a price range of $62 to $68 per share, but boosted the estimate earlier this week upon greater-than-expected demand from investors.

Lyft's IPO sets the stage for the stock market debut of larger rival Uber Technologies Inc, which Reuters has reported will kick off in April. Uber has been told by its investment bankers that it ride-hailing company could be valued at as much as $120 billion, making it one of the biggest IPO's in history and the biggest out of Silicon Valley since Facebook's IPO in 2012.

The largest IPO ever was China's Alibaba Group Holding Ltd in 2014 when the e-commerce giant raised $25 billion.

The ride-hailing industry is expected to grow rapidly in the coming years, as young millennials in big cities forego car ownership in favor of on-demand mobility, which both Lyft and Uber provide.

The two ride-hailing companies are branching out into bike and electric scooter sharing, hoping to become not only-ride hailing providers, but an entire mobility platform that includes public transit options.

2019 seems to be the year for big IPO's in Silicon Valley. Other big name companies planning their much anticipated IPO's are Pinterest, Slack Technologies Inc and delivery company Postmates Inc.

Lyft, which was valued at $15 billion in final private fundraising round in 2018, kicked off its 10-day IPO roadshow in New York on March 18. It continued with stops in Baltimore, Kansas and Los Angeles. Reuters reported the IPO was oversubscribed after just two days.

Lyft's revenue was $2.16 billion for 2018, double the previous year's and far higher than $343 million in 2016. However, the ride-hailing company posted a loss of $911 million in 2018 versus $688 million in 2017.

Despite the losses, Lyft's market share is rising. The company says it captured 39 percent of the ride-hailing market in the U.S., according to its registration statement released on March 1. The figures from December 2018, are almost double the 22 percent market share that Lyft reported at the end of 2016.

The company has not laid out a timeline for when it will turn a profit, but investors have shown patience in the past if they feel the growth will eventually lead to a big payoff. E-commerce giant Amazon is one example, taking years to reach profitability.

Amazon's 1997 IPO raised $54 million, giving the online retailer a market value of $438 million, which looks tiny compared to today's tech IPO's.

resource from: Reuters

FutureCar Staff