Source: Lyft has hired JP Morgan to lead its IPO, scheduled for early 2019, which could value company at more than $15B
$120 billion sounds nuts but isn't. —even a successful IPO at that stratospheric valuation doesn't answer whether Uber is a viable, lasting business. https://www.bloomberg.com/... Greg Bensinger / @gregbensinger : Uber's banker suitors value the UberEats unit alone at around $20 billion. It's been growing fast and is expected to be profitable well before Uber's core ride-hailing business @WSJ https://www.wsj.com/... Eric Newcomer / @ericnewcomer : Lyft targeting $25 billion valuation in IPO next year. JPM leading. https://www.bloomberg.com/... Tim Higgins / @timkhiggins : Lyft picks JPMorgan Chase & Co. as lead underwriter for its IPO in 2019, along with Credit Suisse Group and Jefferies Group, with an expected valuation topping $15.1 billion http://www.wsj.com/... via @WSJ Tom Gara / @tomgara : It's a real mystery - why is the company with 375 million rides in 2017 worth 1/8th of the company with 4 billion rides in 2017? http://twitter.com/... Christopher Mims / @mims : If Lyft is going to go public at $15 billion and Uber at $120 billion what's the actual value of a global ride sharing company? Seems we have an order of magnitude disagreement brewing.http://www.wsj.com/...http:// www.wsj.com/... Shira Ovide / @shiraovide : Let's say Uber's net revenue doubles at this point in 2019 (it won't), to ~$20 billion. At a $120 billion (!!!!) valuation, that's a not-insane 6x current year revenue. BUT. I have no idea if Uber's business model works. Do bankers? Does Uber? http://www.wsj.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
Lyft picking JP Morgan to lead an early-2019 IPO comes one day after banks pitched Uber on a $120 billion IPO valuation — nearly double its mark from two months prior — putting the two US ride-hailing rivals on a collision course for public markets in the same window.
The hire sets Lyft's underwriting bench at JP Morgan with Credit Suisse and Jefferies as co-underwriters, and the arc that follows is telling: the company ultimately filed to raise up to $2.1B at a valuation of up to $18.5B, well above the $15B floor reported here but below the $20–25B range sources floated by February.
First-order effects
- Lyft now has a lead bank committed to an early-2019 listing above $15B, converting its private-market standing into a concrete roadshow timeline alongside Credit Suisse and Jefferies.
- Uber's bankers are simultaneously floating a $120B valuation — with UberEats alone pegged around $20B — so Lyft's pricing will be set against a rival narrative claiming far larger scale.
Second-order effects
- Rakuten, which holds a 13% Lyft stake acquired in 2015 after its Slice purchase data suggested Lyft was undervalued, gains a defined liquidity path for one of its largest venture positions.
- JP Morgan's lead role puts it in position to capture fees across a rare back-to-back mega-IPO window if Uber also proceeds, intensifying competition among bulge-bracket banks for the second mandate.
Third-order effects
- Public-market pricing of both listings becomes the first hard test of whether ride-hailing's private valuations survive scrutiny — Uber's own Q4 numbers showed adjusted EBITDA losses widening even as revenue grew 24%, so the gap between banker proposals and fundamentals is the structural question these IPOs answer.
- If Lyft lands near its filed range rather than the loftier sourced figures, it establishes a discount template for loss-growth companies going public, pressuring later-stage private rounds across the sector.
The trend: Ride-hailing is moving from private fundraising to a compressed 2019 public-listing race in which banker-anchored valuations, not operating results, set the opening prices.