Transportation

Uber’s wordy risk factors mix tedium and terror

16 Apr 2019

Tech firms seeking to go public have steadily ramped up the caveats for would-be investors. The ride-hailing app’s IPO has 30 times as many words of warning as Microsoft did in 1986. Lawyers add more boilerplate over time, but more complex, wobblier firms are also floating.

A $100 bln price tag still in Uber’s driving range

11 Apr 2019

The ride-hailing app’s mega-IPO could value it at nine times revenue. That’s less than the multiple Lyft achieved, but its stock has tanked. Both firms are burning cash and face an uncertain road to profitability. Uber’s diversification may help it survive the long journey.

Delta climbs clear of rivals’ 737 MAX woes

10 Apr 2019

Selling more premium seats helped the $39 bln airline to a strong first quarter. With American, Southwest and even United constrained by the grounding of Boeing’s new jets, Delta’s Airbus fleet positions it nicely to take further advantage of a booming travel market.

Viewsroom: What’s driving Lyft’s valuation?

4 Apr 2019

The ride-hailing firm is worth $30 bln after its stock-market debut, even though its losses are growing. Shareholders are betting a shift to autonomous driving will steer it to a profit, but that may be a long way off. Plus: Saudi Aramco lets investors drill into its finances.

Swiss freight group gets pirate’s bounty from DSV

1 Apr 2019

The Danish logistics company is handing over shares worth $4.6 bln for Panalpina after a months-long spat involving activist Cevian and a charitable foundation. The price is too good to turn down. Expert acquirer DSV will have to beat its own track record to make the deal pay.

Lyft gives Uber a boost along the IPO road

29 Mar 2019

New investors eagerly hopped into the ride-sharing firm’s public listing, driving Lyft’s price up by some 20 pct. It bodes well for mega-rival Uber, which on a similar multiple would be worth over $150 bln. Turning fast growth into profit, though, remains a challenge for both.

Swine fever tests China’s transparency credentials

29 Mar 2019

Grains trader Cargill is the latest company to cite outbreaks of the highly contagious hog disease as a drag on business. It’s likely to fuel fears that the world's biggest pork producer may be under-reporting the issue. The taint adds to Beijing's fast-spreading problem.

Uber gets an IPO boost from Middle East deal

26 Mar 2019

The ride-hailing giant will pay $3 bln to acquire Dubai-based rival Careem. It shows the group, which is burning through $1 bln a year, can still spend to grow as it prepares to go public. Amid intense overseas competition, the move gives Uber one less thing to worry about.

Italian Silk Road gambit is a double-edged sword

15 Mar 2019

Marco Polo’s daring travels turned Venice into a wealthy gateway to China; 750 years on, Rome wants to rebuild that special bond through infrastructure deals. Improving ties with a key trading partner makes sense. The risk of leaning East is that Italy loses clout in the West.

Lyft makes flattering “contribution” to accounting

14 Mar 2019

The term commonly means revenue less variable costs. The ride-hailing firm’s take on it excludes even some of those outlays and suggests healthy profit in the future. Like WeWork’s “community-adjusted EBITDA” prospective IPO investors should probably ignore the metric altogether.

Lyft maps route to place where all is relative

8 Mar 2019

What’s the ride-hailing app worth on the stock market: Is it $15 billion, its private value mid-last year, or $25 billion? And will larger Uber top $100 billion? All the players are still private, so there’s nothing to compare. They’d better hope Lyft does a good marketing job.

Lyft IPO has fewer Wall Street seats than it seems

6 Mar 2019

The ride-hailing firm has booked a staggering 29 banks for its trip to the public market. But only three, led by JPMorgan, will earn a decent fare. That’s an unusually small group. If Uber sticks with recent practice, there will be more wannabe drivers clamoring for their share.

Lyft and Uber could leave other IPOs idling

5 Mar 2019

The two ride-hailing firms could between them raise twice as much as the $7.1 bln tech debutants managed on U.S. exchanges last year. With Airbnb, Pinterest and others hoping to take similar trips to the public markets, Wall Street needs to get a lot more demand on the roads.

Lyft IPO promises roads to everywhere

1 Mar 2019

The firm is growing fast in a huge market, and there’s a glimmer of a path to profit. But Lyft is also hemorrhaging cash, faces frightful competition and is dependent on robo-cars arriving soon. Wall Street is along for the ride, but public investors will need strong stomachs.

Storms won’t keep Qantas from higher flight path

21 Feb 2019

Australia's flag carrier said fuel costs pulled first-half earnings down by nearly a fifth to $559 mln. Domestic business proved resilient, though; its fleet and balance sheet are in good shape too. Choppy weather lies ahead, but Qantas looks sturdier than higher-valued rivals.

Boeing can afford a business upgrade

8 Feb 2019

The $225 bln aerospace firm is considering whether to build a new jet. It stumbled with the 787 a decade ago. Since then, boss Dennis Muilenburg has fixed production snags, and customers are in better shape. A new wide-body could boost Boeing’s lead over Airbus.

Tesla CFO exit news is flashback to bad old days

31 Jan 2019

The electric-car maker’s new board chair and directors may be helping to tone down CEO Elon Musk’s overwrought promises and tweets. But his decision to wait until the end of an earnings call to disclose that Tesla’s finance chief is leaving shows Musk remains firmly at the wheel.

Harley’s tariff woes are more sidecar than engine

29 Jan 2019

The $6 bln motorcycle maker clashed with Donald Trump over trade barriers. But its big problem is generational. With Hog-riding baby boomers aging fast and the appeal of big internal-combustion engines on the wane, Harley needs products that will spark millennials’ interest.

Royal Mail decline will make Westminster nervous

29 Jan 2019

The postal service’s latest warning sent its shares well below its 2013 IPO price. Royal Mail is yet to cut its dividend and has minimal debt, but its main earnings generator is in decline. The risk of a lose-lose scenario involving some kind of UK state support has increased.

The end of gasoline-powered cars is nigh. Soonish.

28 Jan 2019

Sales of electric vehicles doubled last year while the overall market stagnated. China and California led the charge. The internal combustion engine still dominates, but demographics, governance and economics suggest that dynamic is not far from breaking hard.