Revenues surge at Uber as ride-hailing arm rebounds

Uber Technologies saw bookings rebound in the first quarter, the US firm said on Wednesday, but losses widened sharply.

The ride hailing app said gross bookings rose 35% year-on-year, at $26.4bn, or by 39% on a constant currency basis, ahead of internal forecasts.

Within that, mobility gross bookings jumped 58% to $10.7bn, while delivery gross bookings rose 12% to $13.9bn.

As a result, revenues strengthened 136% to $6.9bn, though the figure was further boosted by last year’s acquisition of transportation logistics firm Transplace and more favourable comparables.

Net losses, however, came in at $5.9bn, compared to $108m a year previously, largely due to unrealised losses related to the revaluation of Uber’s investments in tech firms Grab, Aurora and Didi.

Looking to current trading, Uber said mobility gross bookings exceeded 2019 levels across all regions. It now expects gross bookings to be in the range of $28.5bn to $29.5bn in the three months to June end, and adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation between £240m and $270m. Adjusted EBITDA was $168m in the first quarter.

Nelson Chai, chief financial officer, added that the firm expected to generate “meaningful” positive free cash flows in the 2022 full year.

Dara Khosrowshahi, chief executive, said: “Our results demonstrate just how much progress we’ve made navigating out of the pandemic, and how the power of our platform is differentiating our business performance.

“We’re focused on executing our strategy to grow our platform profitability.”

Uber’s results contrasted with rival’s Lyft, which posted revenues and profits below expectations, also on Wednesday, sending the shares tumbling 26% in pre-market trading. Ubers shares were down 2% as at 1315 BST.