Lyft starts trading today, stock likely to gain on open

The D-day is finally here. Ride-hailing service Lyft will start trading on Nasdaq under the symbol LYFT shortly after the opening bell today. The company completed its IPO formalities late on Thursday, pricing the stock at $72. When the company announced its IPO in December, it was looking at a price range of $62-$68 per share.

By offering 32.5 million shares, the San Franciso, California-based firm is hoping to raise $2.7 billion, which would take its total valuation to $24.3 billion.

Analysts expect the stock price to increase once it starts trading. There could be a delay of some minutes or hours before the stock starts trading after the opening bell for the order book to balance.

As per a regulatory filing made by the company, Lyft currently accounts for almost 40% of the US ride-hailing market. It is one of the most touted IPOs of this year, the biggest by valuation since Alibaba (BABA) IPO in 2014

Lyft’s public listing will set the stage for a slew of other unicorns including rival Uber, Slack, Airbnb and Pinterest hit stock markets.

READ: UBER REPORTS HEAVY LOSSES IN Q4 AS IT HEADS CLOSER TO IPO

Uber is yet to file for its IPO and is expected to do so in the coming days. Though both companies are yet to deliver profits, Lyft has been growing at a faster pace than Uber as the latter has been plagued by a slew of scandals.

Both companies are using up investments to test waters in the autonomous vehicle industry. Lyft had last year acquired London-based technology start-up Blue Vision Labs, to boost its own self-drive ambitions.

READ: 2018 WAS THE YEAR OF HEALTHCARE IPO. HERE IS WHY

Meanwhile, Uber was forced to halt its testing of autonomous vehicles after its self-drive car mowed down a pedestrian in Arizona last year. In December, it resumed its testing through the streets of Pittsburgh.

Lyft’s journey has also not been sans any criticism. The company has often been put on the dock for its wide losses, besides its dual-class share structure.

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