On Its Way: Uber Plans To Sell $10B Of Stock In May IPO

Uber Technologies is about to turn a long-awaited corner.

What To Know

In May, management will try to sell $10 billion of stock on the New York Stock Exchange, Reuters reported. The IPO is expected to be the biggest of 2019 and in the top 20 of all time. It will certainly be one of the tech sector’s largest, exceeding all since the 2014 launch of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd BABA.

Shares will primarily be issued by the company, but a fraction will be sold by exiting investors, according to CNBC.

Management will publicize its IPO registration Thursday and launch its investor roadshow the week of April 29. The formal filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission will provide prospective investors their first comprehensive look at Uber’s operations.

Why It's Important

"The main thing is going to be the ride-sharing metrics versus Lyft,” Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives told Bloomberg. “I think in the view of many investors Lyft is the little brother to Uber.”

Mindful of Lyft Inc LYFT’s poor IPO in March, Uber reduced its targeted valuation from $120 billion to between $90 billion and $100 billion. The most recent private fundraising round tagged the company at $76 billion.

Whether investors agree with the pricing is yet to be seen. Uber’s bare-bones February report recorded decelerating bookings and revenue growth. Investors await information on its growth strategy, particularly its penetration of other global markets.

“I don’t know if they’re going to give us enough to get to that level of specificity but the U.S. is the oldest, most mature market,” D.A. Davidson analyst Tom White told Bloomberg. “I think some investors think it has slowed significantly.”

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