American ride hailing app Lyft, which is the second largest after Uber, plans on an initial public offering early next year and to that end it has hired J.P. Morgan Chase. The investment bank would lead its IPO which could help the company mop up a staggering US$15 billion from the market. This was revealed by sources who chose to remain anonymous.
Already, Lyft managed to raise US$600 million in Series I funding at the start of this year. This helped it clock a value of US$15.1 billion.
As per sources, Jefferies and Credit Suisse have also been asked to underwrite the first public issuance, though in a junior capacity.
Both Uber and Lyft are planning upon going public next year. In fact, banks have told Uber that the IPO could fetch it a valuation of almost US$120 billion.
Since J.P. Morgan is already in-charge of Lyft’s IPO, it has decided not to be a part of Uber’s. Sources also add that there are high chances of Lyft going public before Uber.
So far, however, both the leading ride hailing services in the U.S. have suffered losses in a stiff battle for gaining market shares. They have been trying to woo customers with ultra-competitive prices which in turn has dealt a hammer blow to their profitability.
Lyft’s estimated losses in the third quarter are somewhere around US$254. A year back it was about US$195 million. This despite a jump in revenue to US$563 million. Earlier, its revenue was US$300 million. It must be noted that all these figures have not been revealed publically by Lyft.
