Telegraph
Lyft will debut on US markets later today, achieving a valuation of $24bn (£18bn) in the largest technology listing in two years, becoming the first out the gates ahead of a flurry of further tech IPOs.
The San Francisco-based ride-hailing firm is expected to price its initial public offering at $72 per share, at the higher end of what was previously expected, sources close to the company said, thanks to booming demand for the shares.
Lyft's float will be the first time investors and analysts will be able to see how ride-hailing companies perform on public markets, and is expected to set the tone for the upcoming float of larger rival Uber.
Although Lyft is not as well-known in Europe as Uber, given it currently only operates in North America, it is one of the biggest companies in the taxi-hailing space.
The company is one of the many fast-growing technology "unicorns" in Silicon Valley, which are valued at more than $1bn, but have, up until now, remained in private hands, along with Pinterest, Airbnb and Slack.
Filings from the start of this month showed that Lyft had been loss-making for several years, including a $911m loss in 2018, a 32pc increase on the previous year’s losses.
Its offering was oversubscribed, prompting the company to increase its price range from $62 to $68 to $70 to $72 each. The company raised about $2.34bn, making it the biggest flotation by a US tech company since social network Snap went public two years ago.
It priced 32.5 million shares, an increase from the planned number of 30.8 million.
The move to float now puts in front of of its biggest rival Uber, which is also due to go public this year, and which already operates in the UK, Europe and the Middle East. Uber, the more established global player, is expected to land a market value of as much as $120bn when it lists next month.
Lyft recently branched out to provided shared scooters and bicycles. It has also followed its rival into investing in self-driving cars, including snapping up a UK start-up last year in a bid to build out its research division.
In documents filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the company suggested it would try to position itself as a values-based company in a bid to appeal to Millennials. Its rival Uber has been hit by controversies over driver pay, its workplace culture and a major data breach.
Lyft's share structure has prompted controversy, with founders Logan Green and John Zimmer each receiving shares with greater voting rights than other investors.
Through Class B shares that carry 20 votes for each ordinary share, co-founders Green, who is chief executive officer, and vice chairman Zimmer will have about 49pc of the voting rights, according to the filing.
Both are expected to become multi-millionaires, and large investors Rakuten, a Japanese e-commerce giant, and Silicon Valley venture capital Andreessen Horowitz are also expected to gain significant windfalls.
Early investor Sean Aggarwal, a former eBay executive, is expected to net $100m from his original $30,000 investment as Lyft's first external backer.
