SAN FRANCISCO — Uber, the ride-hailing service that has upended transportation around the world, took a major step toward the largest initial public offering in years when it officially unveiled its finances in a prospectus on Thursday.
The offering, which could value Uber at around $100 billion, is expected to reverberate through global financial markets and to solidify the company’s position as one of the most consequential technology firms of the past decade. The share sale would be the biggest since the Alibaba Group of China began trading on the New York Stock Exchange in 2014, and would peg Uber’s value at more than four times that of United Airlines’ parent and double that of FedEx.
But the prospectus for Uber’s offering renewed questions about how sustainable the company’s business actually is. It said in the filing that it lost $1.8 billion in 2018, excluding certain transactions, on revenue of $11.3 billion. And the prospectus also showed that Uber’s rocket-ship trajectory for revenue growth was beginning to slow.
The company’s archrival in North America, Lyft, went public last month at a valuation of $24 billion. But Lyft, which is also deeply unprofitable, fell below its offering price in its second day of trading as investors questioned whether it could make money. This week, Pinterest, the digital pin board company that also is losing money, set a price range for its public offering that values it at below that of its last private market peg.
One potentially major concern for Uber is that it does not appear set to turn a profit in the near future. In the United States, the company is burning cash as it battles Lyft, cutting prices for passengers and spending to recruit drivers. In other parts of the world, Uber also provides discounts to riders and incentives to drivers as competitors like Ola fight for market share. The company is also investing heavily in businesses like food delivery and scooters.
“We will not shy away from making short-term financial sacrifices where we see clear long-term benefits,” Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber’s chief executive, wrote in a letter accompanying the prospectus.
To lessen the surprise of its losses when it did finally go public, Uber has disclosed its quarterly results for two years even though, as a privately held company, it was not obligated to do so. Still, the prospectus invites new scrutiny, particularly when Uber executives begin meeting with investors on a so-called road show in the coming weeks.
Uber did not disclose in the prospectus the valuation it is seeking from public investors; it was last valued at $76 billion in the private market. Its public offering is being led by Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. The company’s shares are set to begin trading next month after the road show closes.
The company said in its filing that it made a profit of $997 million in 2018, largely from the sale of parts of its business in places like Southeast Asia and Russia. Excluding those gains, plus interest, tax and other items, Uber lost $1.8 billion for the year. In 2017, its net loss totaled $4 billion.
Revenue growth also noticeably slowed. In 2018, revenue rose 42 percent to $11.3 billion from a year earlier. But revenue in 2017 more than doubled from 2016. At the same time, Uber’s spending continues to rise, reaching $14.3 billion last year, up 19 percent from 2017.
While revenue growth in its ride-hailing business slowed, its food delivery service, Uber Eats, is soaring. Revenue from Uber Eats nearly tripled to $1.5 billion in 2018 from $587 million a year earlier.
Founded by Garrett Camp and Travis Kalanick in 2009, Uber began as an on-demand black car service for wealthy clients, riding the wave of mobile-technology innovation that followed Apple’s introduction of the iPhone in 2007. Mr. Camp conceived of the service, initially called UberCab, because of the difficulties he had hailing a taxi in San Francisco.
Silicon Valley tech workers were quick to embrace Uber, but it wasn’t until around 2013 that the service took off more broadly. That year, Uber introduced UberX, a low-cost ride-sharing service that allowed anyone with a car and a license to drive for the company on a freelance basis. UberX was a hit, and the company expanded rapidly elsewhere, often by flouting local and state transportation laws.
Under Mr. Kalanick’s leadership, Uber also increased its footprint internationally. It now operates in more than 60 countries and 600 cities around the world, with more than three million monthly active drivers providing rides to over 75 million regular riders. Uber completes more than 15 million trips a day.
Amid its explosive growth, the company stumbled in 2017 when a series of legal and ethical scandals resulted in a boardroom coup that led to Mr. Kalanick’s ouster as chief executive. After trying to regain power for months, Mr. Kalanick has since moved on to a new start-up, City Storage Systems, which is focused largely on real estate.
Uber has been led by Mr. Khosrowshahi, a former chief executive of Expedia, since late 2017. The company has expanded beyond its original ride-hailing mission and is experimenting with scooters, bike-sharing and other alternative forms of transportation. It has also been investing in Uber Eats and is beefing up Uber Freight, its long-haul-trucking division.
“What began as ‘tap a button, get a ride,’ has become something much more profound,” Mr. Khosrowshahi said in his letter to investors. “Uber is a once-in-a-generation company, and the opportunity ahead of it is enormous.”
The company has tried stemming some of its losses, including by selling some of its businesses in China, Russia and Southeast Asia. It recently acquired Careem, its primary rival in the Middle East, for $3.1 billion, partly to help ease a fierce price competition in the region. It has also sought new investment from the Japanese telecommunications conglomerate SoftBank to support its development of autonomous vehicles.
The public offering will create many winners financially. According to the prospectus, Uber’s largest shareholders are entities affiliated with SoftBank, which owns 16 percent of the company; the venture capital firm Benchmark, which owns 11 percent; Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which owns 5 percent; Alphabet, which owns 5 percent; and Mr. Kalanick, who owns 9 percent.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/11/technology/uber-ipo-filing.html
2019-04-11 20:21:38Z
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