Uber on track for first profitable quarter

Uber said it was on track for its first profitable quarter after burning through billions of dollars for more than a decade.

The ride hailing company said adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation would be between minus $25m and and $25m in the three months to the end of September.

Chief Financial Officer Nelson Chai said it would take a major downturn in the last few days of the month for the company not to post a profit after positive earnings in July and August. Gross bookings will be between $22.8bn and $23.2bn, Uber said.

"Uber is now tracking towards adjusted Ebitda break-even in Q3, well ahead of our prior guidance, Chai said in a filing. He said Uber expected a stronger fourth quarter with adusted Ebitda expected to be between zero and $100m.

Adjusted Ebitda also excludes costs from discontinued operations, investments and other items. Second-quarter net income was $1.1bn but this figure was boosted by investment gains.

Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi has partly cleaned up the company's reputation and scrapped surplus operations such as self-driving car development since taking over in 2017. The company has stuck to its goal of posting adjusted ebitda profit in a quarter by the end of 2020 during the effects of the pandemic.