Morgan Stanley wants to let people buy up Uber shares, according to people familiar with the subject, as they’re lining up buyers who will commit to $250 million worth of shares for the ride-share company, Bloomberg reported Monday (Feb. 10).
The bank will offer 6.25 million shares at $39.85 to $39.95 per share, all on behalf of an undisclosed holder, people familiar with Morgan Stanley said. The prices are a 0.4 percent discount to Monday’s closing price of $40.01.
The share sale comes on the heels of a separate block trade, where 6.25 million shares crossed at 39.78 after the market closed on Monday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Uber shares are up 35 percent so far this year.
In recently reported Uber statistics, the company said it has turned its focus to cutting losses and becoming profitable. After initially receiving doom-and-gloom forecasts from analysts since the company went public in May of last year, things have turned around, and Uber’s shares have priced around the $40 mark as of late, with a market cap of $69 billion.
Last year, when Uber went public, its initial public offering (IPO) stumbled out of the gate and saw its shares drop 7.6 percent in a day. Uber’s attempts to move beyond ride-shares and into other markets, such as Uber Eats and Uber Freight, didn’t seem to inspire confidence.
But that confidence seems to be coming back around, with the stock shooting up 9.5 percent and its best trading day ever now on the books after they reported a 42 percent rise in revenues. That included monthly users rising 22 percent, to 111 million overall, and gross bookings hitting $18 million.
The convenience of the platform could continue to be a major feather in Uber’s cap — the company boasts of almost a million drivers in the U.S. alone. Last year, they completed rides for 6.9 billion people, a 32 percent increase from the previous year.
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