A new report says that Uber’s valuation when it goes public is likely to be $14 billion less than its most recent private valuation.
According to The Information, it is believed that when the ride-hailing company goes public this year, it will have a valuation of a little less than $90 billion. That number is partially based on previous undisclosed projections that the company handed over to creditors last year, which revealed estimated double net revenue would reach $14.2 billion by 2019. It also said Uber’s loss before interest, taxes and non-cash items would fall to $500 million in 2019 from a projected $1.7 billion in 2018.
Uber is expected to go public in the first half of 2019, having filed paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the U.S. at the end of December. Uber joined its main rival Lyft in filing the paperwork with the SEC, with both expected to be among the largest tech IPOs to happen in 2019. Subsequent steps now include a review by the SEC prior to listing.
Lyft has been working towards its IPO, with a busy second half of 2018 for the company that included launching new offers and services to attract customers and drivers to its platform.
For its part, Uber is looking to settle with drivers who have been fighting the ride-hailing company before it goes public. The drivers want to be classified as employees instead of independent contractors so they can get compensated for expenses such as gas and maintenance on their vehicles. As a result, Uber has reportedly offered to pay 11 cents for each mile its drivers accumulate, and drivers who accept the settlement must release all claims against Uber related to misclassification of employees.
Drivers have been going after Uber individually after a ruling that they could not launch a class action lawsuit against the company. The lawsuits have been going on for years and involve nine states and 160,000 drivers.
