John Sciulli/Getty Images for Lyft
Lyft Co-founder, John Zimmer attends the Lyft driver rally at Siren Studios on January 27, 2015 in Hollywood, California.
- Lyft has selected JPMorgan, Credit Suisse, and Jefferies for an IPO, the Wall Street Journal Reported Tuesday.
- Both Lyft and its ride-hailing competitor Uber are racing towards stock listings.
- Uber has netted a $120 billion target, the same paper also reported Tuesday.
Lyft has selected JPMorgan as the lead bookrunner for its imminent initial public offering, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, with Credit Suisse and Jefferies also working on the listing.
The IPO is expected to happen in the first half of 2019, people familiar with the plans tell the paper. While the valuation may not meet its competitor Uber's latest reported target of $120 billion, any public offering by Lyft will likely exceed its most recent private valuation of $15.1 billion.
While significantly smaller than Uber, Lyft has secured the backing of major automakers like Ford as well as Alphabet, the parent company of Google, which has a $1 billion stake. The company plans to focus on leading the American market, as opposed to Uber's global ambitions, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Lyft declined to comment on the report.
It's been a hot year for IPO's as companies rush to tap public capital markets before any financial downturn in the economy that could make that fundraising more difficult. There have been 173 companies listed from January 1 through the end of the third quarter in September, raising a collective $45.7 billion - nearly 50% more than the same period last year. In the tech sector, newly public equities have gained 33%, according to data from Dealogic.
As a private company, Lyft has raised a total of $4.9 billion in funding over 17 rounds since 2015, according to data from Crunchbase.