NYSE wins Uber, Pinterest listings: sources

[NEW YORK] Uber Technologies Inc and Pinterest, two of the highest profile Internet companies planning to go public this year, have picked the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) as the venue for their stock listings, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The companies and the NYSE declined to comment.

NYSE has become the exchange of choice over Nasdaq for big technology companies in the past few years after Nasdaq famously bumbled the Facebook IPO (initial public offering) with massive technology errors. The exchanges compete fiercely for listing fees, and much like investment banks, often begin courting large companies long before they are ready to list.

Nasdaq did score the IPO of ride-hailing firm Lyft Inc, which could reach or exceed a US$23 billion valuation when it prices its shares March 28. Lyft will be the first Internet player to kick off a string of hotly anticipated public debuts that will energise the IPO market after a quiet start to the year.

In a sign that investors crave newly issued stock, shares of Levi Strauss & Co surged 31 per cent in their debut on Thursday, giving the jeans maker a market value of US$8.7 billion.

Bloomberg first reported the Uber news on Thursday while The Wall Street Journal first reported the Pinterest news.

Uber, a global logistics and transportation company most recently valued at US$76 billion in the private market, is seeking a valuation as high as US$120 billion, although some analysts have pegged its value closer to US$100 billion based on selected financial figures it has disclosed.

Pinterest, which owns the image search website known for food and fashion photos, was valued at US$12 billion in its last fundraising round in 2017. The San Francisco-based company has grown rapidly since its founding in 2008, boasting 250 million monthly active users last September.

Pinterest monetises its website through advertisements, which it places among the "pins" that users put on the site.

Reuters previously reported Pinterest could raise around US$1.5 billion in the IPO, which is likely to come in the first six months of 2019. The Wall Street Journal said on Thursday that the company could reveal its IPO filing as early as Friday and list its shares by mid-April.

REUTERS