Lyft is considering setting its IPO price above its current range of $62 to $68 per share, signaling strong demand for the ride-hailing company’s public offering, the Wall Street Journal reports.
If Lyft prices its IPO shares above that range, it not only signals investor interest for its public offering but also bodes well for the other unicorn startups looking to float out their IPO, such as its arch-rival Uber and Pinterest.
Lyft is eyeing an IPO price in the low $70s, which would value the company in excess of $23 billion on a fully diluted basis, the Journal reports. But it has yet to be seen if its final IPO price would put its value at $25 billion, which had been previously expected.
Lyft is expected to price its IPO on Thursday and begin trading on Friday.
The San Francisco-based ride-hailing company has been making the rounds with potential investors since early last week and reportedly encountered packed crowds during its roadshow, the Journal reports. Lyft uses this investor feedback as part of the process to book orders for its IPO shares and develop a better idea of what the ultimate price for those share should be.
Although investors are apparently eager to snap up Lyft shares, one institutional investor cautioned in a previous interview that Lyft’s path to profitability might be tough.
“What makes valuing this IPO difficult is there are no precedents to compare it with. There are no publicly traded ride-sharing companies,” the investor said.
Cory Murphy, a senior analyst with Renaissance Capital, said Lyft may be facing trouble attracting a $25 billion valuation because it’s not able to show it’s growing its sales fast enough to warrant such a valuation and that its path to profitability is not entirely clear.
The ride-sharing company generated nearly $2.2 billion in revenue last year, more than double the $1.1 billion generated the previous year. Its net loss rose to $911 million, a 32 percent increase over the same period, according to its SEC filing. And during this time, the company ended the year with $517.7 million in cash and cash equivalents — less than half the $1.1 billion it had in the previous year.
~source:bizjournals
