Company will raise more than $8 billion at initial valuation of more than $75 billion
Uber Technologies Inc.’s highly anticipated initial public offering will raise more than $8 billion, the company disclosed Thursday afternoon, making it the biggest IPO for a U.S.-based company since Facebook Inc. went public in 2012.
Uber UBER, +0.00% said Thursday that it intends to sell 180 million shares at $45 a share, toward the lower end of its stated range of $44 to $50 a share, which would raise $8.1 billion. PayPal Holdings Inc. PYPL, +0.61% has agreed to purchase $500 million in stock in a concurrent private placement, raising even more cash.
Underwriters, led by Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and BofA Merrill Lynch, have access to another 27 million shares offered by selling shareholders to cover overallotments, which could push the total raise even higher. At the IPO price, Uber would initially be worth a bit more than $75 billion, based on shares outstanding as of the completion of the offering.
The company’s IPO is the biggest U.S. offering since Facebook FB, -0.47% raised $16 billion with its 2012 IPO. Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. BABA, -0.31% raised about $25 billion in 2014, while Visa Inc. V, -0.59% brought in nearly $18 billion in 2008.
The company is expected to begin trading Friday morning on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “UBER.”
Uber’s pricing was seen as a cautious move by many in the investment community, which could be a result of a disappointing debut for rival Lyft Inc. LYFT, +4.29% , which has seen its shares struggle after pricing its IPO at $72 a share, which gave the smaller company an initial valuation of about $24 billion. Lyft delivered a mixed earnings report late Tuesday that indicated rider incentives appear to be lessening in the market, which could bode well for Uber, and shares closed Thursday at $55.18.
“We view Uber’s conservative pricing as a smart and prudent strategy coming out of the box as it clearly learned from its ‘little brother’ Lyft, and the experience it has gone through over the past month,” Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives wrote in a note soon after Uber priced its shares.
Wedbush analysts believe Uber is worth more than $100 billion, and has the stock rated Outperform.
The ride-hailing giant saw its revenue climb to $11.3 billion in 2018 from $7.9 billion a year earlier, representing a growth rate of 43%, but it has struggled with gigantic losses. Uber reported $1 billion in net income last year, but that was largely due to the sale of Russian and Asian operations; the company recorded an operating loss of $3 billion in 2018, and had an accumulated deficit of $7.9 billion as of the end of last year.
Uber’s initial public offering follows a strike by some of its drivers, who were protesting the big payouts that executives and investors were to receive upon completion of the offering as well as the company’s classification of its drivers as contractors. Because Uber doesn’t designate its drivers as employees, it isn’t required to abide by minimum-wage rules or provide other benefits.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Uber disclosed earlier Thursday that it has reached a settlement with “a large majority” of 60,000 drivers who had entered into arbitration against Uber seeking to be classified as employees. Uber said it expects to pay up to $170 million in that settlement.
Uber’s prospectus included some wonky metrics, including a “core platform take rate” of 20% last year. The company’s core platform mainly consists of its ride-sharing and Uber Eats businesses.
In some instances, due to the incentives that Uber offers its drivers, those drivers take home more for a given fare than Uber actually charged the customer. The company is also investing heavily in its business, which include newer efforts in freight and scooters as well as longer-term ambitions around autonomous driving.
PayPal’s $500 million purchase of fresh Uber stock just adds to a number of tech heavyweights that have a piece of the company, including Google parent company Alphabet Inc. GOOGL, -0.24% GOOG, -0.33% , which invested early in Uber and received shares in a settlement of a bare-knuckles fight between the companies over autonomous-driving technology.
Ahead of the offering, Alphabet held about 5.2% of the company, which was behind other investors and early executives. The largest stakes belonged to SoftBank Group Corp.’s 9984, -3.72% Vision Fund, which held 16.2% before the offering, and venture investor Benchmark Capital Partners, which held 11%. The sovereign-wealth fund of Saudi Arabia holds about 5.3% of the company, while co-founders Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp — who remain as board members but no longer have operational roles with the company after controversial tenures — held 8.4% and 6% respectively.