# Opinion: Uber’s IPO is even more dangerous for investors than Lyft’s has been



## Who is John Galt? (Sep 28, 2016)

I don't believe this MarketWatch article has yet been posted, but if it has apologies to the earlier poster.
The article is long but a good analysis, particularly with the linked spreadsheets near the base.










Home>Investing>Stocks
*Opinion: Uber's IPO is even more dangerous for investors than Lyft's has been*
Published: Apr 29, 2019 12:29 p.m. ET

Uber isn't growing revenue as fast as management would like you to believe and is burning through cash like a trust fund baby on a shopping spree.

By
*DavidTrainer 
& KyleGuske II 
& SamMcBride *









Roughly 70% of drivers work for both Uber and Lyft. 

Uber's bankers are getting cold feet. Lowering the anticipated IPO valuation from a rumored $100 billion to between $80 billion and $90 billion means investors are not buying the pitch as well as hoped.

We're not surprised, and we won't be surprised if Uber's UBER, +0.00% valuation falls even further. Anything above a valuation of around $20 billion is a rip-off and makes no sense. Whether before or after the initial offering, the valuation of this stock will likely fall hard and fast. As soon as markets wise up to the fact that this deal is nothing more than a mechanism to dump a terribly overpriced private company onto unsuspecting pubic investors, look out below.

Frankly, we're surprised the jig isn't up for Lyft LYFT, -1.07% and Uber given that neither, in their public filings, even attempt to explain how they will ever make money. We would not be surprised if their lawyers would not let them put any such prognostications in writing for fear of the shareholder lawsuits if or when those predictions failed to materialize.

As we detail below, Uber isn't growing revenue as fast as management would like you to believe while it is burning through cash like a trust fund baby on a shopping spree. The fact that there is any appetite for Uber (and Lyft) is a testament to the gullibility of our public equity markets.

In almost every respect, Uber looks even more dangerous than Lyft, which is already down 20% from its overvalued IPO price. Uber is growing at a slower rate than Lyft, loses much more money, and has an expected market cap that is about five times higher. Lyft's troubled IPO has clearly dampened enthusiasm for Uber, which in turn is driving Lyft's stock even further down. This feedback loop just shows that the valuations of these two companies only make sense in comparison to one another, and not to fundamentals or the rest of the market.

*Numbers don't back up the growth story*

We're not going to talk about Uber's losses here, even though losing $3.0 billion in 2018 is astonishing. Everyone knows Uber and Lyft lose money, which seems to be a point of pride in Silicon Valley.

Instead, let's talk about the story Uber wants to highlight for investors. According to Uber, it is still in the early stages of capturing what it estimates to be a $12 trillion (yes, that's trillion with a "T") total addressable market that includes personal mobility, food delivery, and freight shipping. For context, the World Bank estimates that global GDP was about $80 trillion in 2017. Uber is saying it thinks it can capture 15% of global economic activity.

*Figure 1: Uber's adjusted net revenue and gross bookings: Q1 2017 - Q4 2018 *








 Sources: New Constructs and company filings

If that goal was remotely feasible, and Uber was at less than 1% of its total addressable market, you'd expect the company's revenue growth to be rapidly accelerating. Instead, Uber's revenue growth rate declined from 106% in 2017 to 42% in 2018. Even that number overstates Uber's growth, as it doesn't account for the extra incentives given to drivers. Uber's Core Platform Adjusted Net Revenue, which strips out driver incentives, grew by just 39% in 2018, and it actually declined quarter-over-quarter in the fourth quarter of 2018.

Uber's Gross Bookings - the total amount of money spent by users on the platform - increased by 11% in Q4, but core net revenue declined by 1%. This disconnect shows the key problem with Uber's theory of world domination: as Uber tries to protect and expand its market share around the world, it's giving up a larger share of revenue to drivers and restaurants, a trend we expect to continue unabated.

*Alarming decline in 'Take Rate' will continue*

Uber's Take Rate, the percentage of Gross Bookings it captures as Core Platform Adjusted Net Revenue, has been in steady decline throughout 2018. Figure 2 shows the company's take rate declined from 22% in Q1 to 18% in Q4.

*Figure 2: Uber Take Rate: Q1 2017 - Q4 2018 *








Sources: New Constructs and company filings

Uber's declining Take Rate in 2018 stands in stark contrast to 2017, when its Take Rate increased from 19% to 22% over the course of the year.

It's not hard to see what caused this reversal. Uber's attempt to squeeze drivers in 2017, along with a series of PR disasters that led to the #DeleteUber campaign, drove both riders and drivers to other platforms, like Lyft. According to data firm Second Measure, Uber's share of the U.S. ride-share market declined from 82% at the beginning of 2017 to 71% at the end of the year.

The U.S. ride-share market is not the only market where Uber is losing share. Internationally, the company has been forced to throw in the towel in China, Russia and Southeast Asia in recent years. Meanwhile, Uber Eats is losing share to DoorDash domestically.

Uber's added incentives for riders and drivers have helped stem the market share losses - its domestic market share declined by a smaller amount, from 71% to 67%, in 2018. Despite its efforts to improve its image, Uber's brand still has a worse reputation than Lyft with consumers, and its drivers recently went on strike in Los Angeles. It's no surprise that Uber drivers are upset, as one recent study suggests they only earn about $9/hour after accounting for all costs involved.

In light of these ongoing struggles, one line from Uber's S-1 stood out. On page 30, Uber writes:

"As we aim to reduce Driver incentives to improve our financial performance, we expect Driver dissatisfaction will generally increase."

Uber can't achieve profitability without squeezing drivers, but if it tries to squeeze drivers it will lose market share. With wages rising at the fastest pace in a decade - and growing even faster for low earners - it seems likely that Uber's take rate will decline even further in 2019.

Companies like Bolt in Europe have shown that it's possible to operate a ride-sharing app profitably, but you can't do so while simultaneously trying to achieve a dominant market share worldwide. Uber can be a huge company, or it can be a profitable company, but it can't be both.

*Uber has no competitive advantages*

Uber's declining market share and take rate highlight the core problem the company faces: it has no real competitive advantage that will allow it to earn a sustainably high return on invested capital (ROIC). Uber bulls would dispute this claim. They'll argue that the company's scale gives it a network effect that will lead to a long-term competitive advantage.

Uber even makes this claim explicitly, writing on page 152: "Our strategy is to create the largest network in each market so that we can have the greatest liquidity network effect, which we believe leads to a margin advantage."

Uber believes that as it grows its user base, it gains a competitive advantage over its rivals. Riders want to use a platform with lots of drivers, which minimizes wait times, and drivers want to use a platform with lots of riders so they have consistent fares. In theory, by achieving the largest scale, Uber's network should represent a sustainable competitive advantage over its rivals.

In practice, Uber is losing billions of dollars of a year and its market share is declining. The company's fundamentals certainly don't back up the idea that it has any real competitive advantage. There are two key reasons why network effects don't make much of a difference in the ride-sharing space:


*Low switching costs:* It is easy for both drivers and riders to use multiple ride-sharing apps. Roughly 70% of drivers work for both Uber and Lyft, and smaller services such as Juno have easily grown by piggybacking off that network. The only switching cost involved for users of these platforms is the time it takes to close one app and open another. Switching cost are inconsequential for drivers too, especially for new ride-share apps that can use driver ratings from Lyft and Uber as a lower-cost way to screen drivers.


*No scale effects:* The bulk of Lyft and Uber use comes within a single city. In fact, Uber discloses that 24% of its bookings comes from just five cities: New York, San Francisco, LA, London, and São Paulo. The localized nature of the ride-sharing industry means that competitors can make inroads by focusing on a single city. If a startup can attract enough riders and drivers in a single city, it doesn't matter if Uber has a superior network worldwide.

*Uber vs. Facebook: Not even close*

Despite its clear lack of a competitive advantage, Uber's expected IPO price values the company as if it will benefit from a powerful network effect in the future. In fact, its $83 billion-90 billion market cap nears Facebook FB, +1.59% when it IPO'd in 2012.

Facebook, unlike Uber, does have a real competitive advantage from its network effect. That competitive advantage has helped Facebook crush smaller competitors, such as Snapchat SNAP, +2.94% and it shows up in the company's top-quintile ROIC of 41%.

The contrast between Facebook and Uber is striking. Figure 3 compares the two companies by operating profit, revenue growth, and number of users in the year before their IPO.

*Figure 3: Uber vs. Facebook: Year Before IPO *


Operating profit (loss)Revenue growthNumber of usersFacebook$1.8 billion88%900 millionUber($3.0 billion)42%90 million
Sources: New Constructs and company filings

In the lead-up to their respective IPO's, Facebook earned nearly $2 billion in profits while Uber lost almost $3 billion. Facebook also was growing twice as fast and had over 10 times as many users.

The fact that Uber might get the same market cap at its IPO as Facebook did, despite far worse operating results, shows just how irrational the market has become over the past seven years.

*Valuation is almost impossible to justify*

As Uber's IPO nears, the company is scrambling to find ways to justify an $80-billion-plus valuation. Its current strategy is to tout the company's self-driving car unit. According to The Wall Street Journal, Uber is finalizing an investment deal with SoftBank and other investors that would value its self-driving car unit at over $7 billion.

It makes sense that Uber wants to distract investors from its huge losses and slowing growth by dangling the promise of self-driving cars. However, there is no reason to believe it has an advantage and chance of making money in this industry, either. In fact, analysis from Navigant shows Uber lagging far behind leaders such as GM Cruise GM, +1.15% and Waymo GOOG, +1.32% GOOGL, +1.46% in the self-driving space.

SoftBank, as a major investor in Uber as a whole, will be more than happy to commit more money if it helps boost the IPO price. Public investors, however, shouldn't be fooled into thinking that self-driving cars will be the magic bullet that allows Uber to become profitable.

The most reasonable path we see to profitability for Uber is a scenario where the company manages to create duopolies/oligopolies with competitors in its various markets, a la the airline industry after consolidation.

If we assume Uber can earn airline-like pretax margins of 8% by the end of next year (current pretax margins are -24%), the company must grow revenue by 40% compounded annually for the next 7 years to justify its valuation. See the math behind this dynamic DCF scenario.

In this scenario, Uber would earn $119 billion in revenue in 2025. At its Q4 take rate, that equates to over $650 billion in gross bookings. Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs estimates that the total size of the global ride-sharing industry will be just $285 billion in 2030.

As with Lyft, we think the ceiling on Uber's valuation is the amount of capital it took to build out its platform. The company's prospects for profitability on its own are slim, so its best chance is to partner with/be acquired by a larger company like Alphabet that develops its own self-driving technology. In this scenario, the acquiring company asks the inevitable "build or buy" question: should we pay $80+ billion for Uber or spend $22 billion, what Uber spent to get to where it is today?

There are many good arguments that one could build the equivalent of Uber's network with a lot less capital. Look no farther than Bolt in Europe, which has only spent $100 million (and is actually making money) to build a user base larger than Lyft's.

The bottom line: it is hard to justify paying anything more than $22 billion for Uber, a 73% downside to the proposed IPO valuation.

*Public shareholders have rights*

If there is one bright spot in the midst of Uber's ugly S-1, it's that public shareholders will actually have a say in corporate governance. Unlike almost every other recent IPO, Uber will eschew a dual-class share structure and go public with only a single class of common stock. The fundamentals might be ugly, but we're glad to see Uber sticking to the principle of one share equals one vote.

*Critical details found in financial filings by our Robo-Analyst technology*

As investors focus more on fundamental research, research automation technology is needed to analyze all the critical financial details in financial filings. Below are specifics on the adjustments we make based on Robo-Analyst findings in Uber's S-1:

*Income statement: *We made $8 billion of adjustments, with a net effect of removing $3.1 billion in nonoperating income (27% of revenue). Our biggest adjustment was the removal of a $3.2 billion gain on sale of the company's Southeast Asia business. You can see all the adjustments made to Uber's income statement *here.

Balance sheet: *We made $10 billion of adjustments to calculate invested capital with a net decrease of $1.9 billion. You can see all the adjustments made to Uber's balance sheet *here.

Valuation:* We made $12.4 billion of adjustments with a net effect of decreasing shareholder value by $11.7 billion. You can see all the adjustments made to Uber's valuation *here.

Also read:* Uber IPO: 5 things you need to know about potentially the biggest IPO in years.

David Trainer is the CEO of New Constructs, an independent equity research firm that uses machine learning and natural language processing to parse corporate filings and model economic earnings. Kyle Guske II and Sam McBride are investment analysts at New Constructs. They receive no compensation to write about any specific stock, style or theme. New Constructs doesn't perform any investment-banking functions and doesn't operate a trading desk. Follow them on Twitter @NewConstructs.


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## 1.5xorbust (Nov 22, 2017)

I believe it has been posted elsewhere but you can’t post too much of a good money making opportunity.


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## Who is John Galt? (Sep 28, 2016)

1.5xorbust said:


> I believe it has been posted elsewhere but you can't post too much of a good money making opportunity.


Thanks, Buddy. :smiles:

Which reminds me, I've got a whole bunch of shares in my bottom drawer for a company called ENRON, which you may be interested in......

.


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## 25rides7daysaweek (Nov 20, 2017)

I'm 1 busy guy in 1 city. According to my 1099 Uber made $25k on my work last year. This company is being run by a bunch of bozos...


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## 1.5xorbust (Nov 22, 2017)

Who is John Galt? said:


> Thanks, Buddy. :smiles:
> 
> Which reminds me, I've got a whole bunch of shares in my bottom drawer for a company called ENRON, which you may be interested in......
> 
> .


Works well as wallpaper.


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## Who is John Galt? (Sep 28, 2016)

1.5xorbust said:


> Works well as wallpaper.


Even better as toilet paper. :smiles:

.



1.5xorbust said:


> Works well as wallpaper.


In fact, you now have me thinking about the future and getting some sort of share certificate, some sort of physical evidence, that Über actually existed. One day, when I'm old and grey and I'm talking to all the grandkid babes on the beach as envisaged *here,* I want to be able to prove to all the up and coming merchant bankers in the family, that yes, you can actually fool a lot of the people for a lot of the time.

.


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## Jack Malarkey (Jan 11, 2016)

Who is John Galt? said:


> Thanks, Buddy. :smiles:
> 
> Which reminds me, I've got a whole bunch of shares in my bottom drawer for a company called ENRON, which you may be interested in......
> 
> .


Any Ansett shares?


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## Who is John Galt? (Sep 28, 2016)

Jack Malarkey said:


> Any Ansett shares?


Funnily ? enough, I still have several million Ansett frequent flyer points. I will never forgive those mongrels for going broke.

.


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## RoboRider (Aug 26, 2018)

Who is John Galt? said:


> Funnily ? enough, I still have several million Ansett frequent flyer points. I will never forgive those mongrels for going broke.
> 
> .


Funnily enough I bought 4 return business class airfares from Adelaide to LA at the end of 2000 for a family holiday using my Ansett frequent flyer points ... then they went bust less than 6 months later. I was a happy chappy even though I still had other points that I lost


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## Helpfull (Jan 5, 2019)

I have never heard of a company operating like UBER in Australia,that operates in a country illegally , bribes Government officials and politicians to become legalised and then proceeds to screw its drivers. Interesting business model!


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## goneubering (Aug 17, 2017)

Who is John Galt? said:


> I don't believe this MarketWatch article has yet been posted, but if it has apologies to the earlier poster.
> The article is long but a good analysis, particularly with the linked spreadsheets near the base.
> 
> View attachment 316882
> ...


I've never seen that $12 Trillion figure before. The previous potential market projection was $7 Trillion which also seems insane. Uber is selling future potential and I expect they will have a strong IPO even though I say Uber is only worth $10 billion.


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## tohunt4me (Nov 23, 2015)

" THE SKY IS FALLING "!


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## Jack Malarkey (Jan 11, 2016)

A modern-day South Sea Bubble?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Sea_Company


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## snert (Sep 1, 2016)

Who is John Galt? said:


> Which reminds me, I've got a whole bunch of shares in my bottom drawer for a company called ENRON, which you may be interested in.


I'll swap your Enron shares for my AMP shares, I think yours are printed on a better class of paper.


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## Who is John Galt? (Sep 28, 2016)

snert said:


> I'll swap your Enron shares for my AMP shares, I think yours are printed on a better class of paper.


I hear what you are saying, but I wouldn't write AMP off just yet.

.


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## IR12 (Nov 11, 2017)

Who is John Galt? said:


> I don't believe this MarketWatch article has yet been posted, but if it has apologies to the earlier poster.
> The article is long but a good analysis, particularly with the linked spreadsheets near the base.
> 
> View attachment 316882
> ...


Not rocket science.


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## Max Arnold (Mar 24, 2017)

Years ago (1975) I invested $500 (2,000 shares) in an Oil company in QLD/NT being told it was a sure thing when a friend invested $10,000
In 2005 when the company was bought out I received the cheque for my 2,000. It was for 10 cents.
It is hanging on the home office was as a reminder not to bet on a sure thing again.


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## BuckleUp (Jan 18, 2018)

Who is John Galt? said:


> I don't believe this MarketWatch article has yet been posted, but if it has apologies to the earlier poster.
> The article is long but a good analysis, particularly with the linked spreadsheets near the base.
> 
> View attachment 316882
> ...


A well thought out and useful post. I told you there are more things in heaven and Earth, my dear Mr Galt, than are dreamt of in your MILF fantasies. I only hope this quality from you continues....


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## Lowestformofwit (Sep 2, 2016)

Starting to look like I’ve picked the wrong place to offload my truckload of Poseidon NL scrip.


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