Uber IPO ‘could be valued at $120 billion’

8336 Uber could be valued as high as $120 billion if the ride-hailing company goes public, as expected, in 2019 – despite being permanently in the red.

Major US banks Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have made valuation proposals to Uber, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal this week. This means the initial public offering (IPO) could be one of the largest in history – and Uber has yet to record a full-year profit.

If the figure is correct, it would mean that Uber is worth more than three of the world’s biggest car manufacturers – General Motors, Ford and Fiat Chrysler – combined, according to Reuters. Uber was valued far lower two months ago, at just $76 billion.

Reuters Breakingviews columnist Robert Cyran <%$Linker:2External<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary />000link-external saysReuters website linkfalsehttps://www.reuters.com/article/us-uber-ipo/uber-ipo-proposals-value-company-at-120-billion-wsj-idUSKCN1MQ1N8falsefalse%>: “So long as investors only care about growth, Uber’s going to do just fine because they’ve got various businesses: for instance, they’ve gotten into electric bikes rental, they’ve gotten into the delivery of food, you know they’ve talked about getting into air taxis. But as long as they can grow this fast, investors are all focused on the possibilities. And they think: ‘Well, you know, who cares about the losses today? At some point Uber’s going to be able to grow so much it will just throw off profits’.”