New York, .- The transport company on demand Lyft started Friday with an acceleration its trip on Wall Street, with a rise of 20% at the beginning of its operations that finally closed at 8.74%, a test of interest investor for the so-called “Unicorns” that will debut in the markets this year.
The firm based in San Francisco (California, USA) experienced an initial ‘rush’, with a first price of 87.24 dollars, above the starting price of 72 dollars set yesterday at the close of stock trading, and very far of the first fork shuffled by the company between 62 and 68 dollars per share.
However, throughout the day the initial enthusiasm was reduced and closed with a price of $ 78.29 for each title.
Lyft not only overtook Uber in the race to go public in 2019, but also opened the way for the “Unicorns” – companies that have achieved a value of more than 1,000 million dollars unlisted – like Slack, Pinterest or Airbnb
Just twenty years after the dotcom outbreak, the market is in full swing to participate in the business of these new technologies, but magnates like Warren Buffett warn of the risk of acquiring this kind of titles in contexts where many public offerings are coming. sale (opv).
In this way, the Oracle of Omaha ruled out investing in Lyft and other upcoming outlets planned for this year, in line with what many investment specialists warn with this wave, that short-term profits are assured but that on average, do not.
“This price shows that many of the investors in opv are not interested in long-term investment and those who buy these initial shares of Lyft, and probably other technological unicorns, are more interested in entering an offer with much expectation … and then sell quickly, “says columnist Marketwatch specialist Therese Poletti.
One of the main doubts in the economic viability of Lyft is that it is a company with large losses, 911 million last year, despite a turnover of 2,200 million dollars.
For Investing analyst Haris Anwar, buying these titles involves “trying your luck” and “making the decision to believe in the story of the company’s excellent growth and prepare for a long and bumpy trip.”
In a note to his clients, Anwar points out the uncertainty in the global macroeconomic environment not to advise investors “that add more risk to their portfolios, especially in the field of ‘startups’ (emerging companies) technology,” although he points out that Lyft will not disappear in the immediate future and you will find a way to balance your accounts.
All in all, that did not stop the company from placing its securities and getting a market capitalization of 24,700 million dollars at the start of its operations on the stock market.
The operation implies several advantages for Lyft, since it obtains a leading role that it would not have had if its main rival was already in the market, and also eliminates an element of uncertainty about the price of the shares.
According to the Lyft brochure submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the company retained 39% of the on-demand transport market last year, 17% more than in 2016, which means eating land at its rival, mainly at the cost of lower tariffs than Uber.
In 2018, Lyft had 30.7 million passengers with 1.9 million drivers and generated reserves worth 8,100 million dollars in travel. (EFEUSA)
