Uber Technologies last night reported its first profitable quarter on an adjusted basis since it launched more than a decade ago boosted by its two most important segments, ride-hailing and restaurant delivery.
The world’s largest ride-hailing group said consumers were travelling in greater numbers and drivers had returned to its platform in the third quarter, suggesting its bigger payments to incentivise drivers had paid off.
The company reported adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation, a measure that excludes one-time costs, primarily stock-based compensation, of $8 million for the three months to the end of September with a loss on the same basis of $625 million a year ago. But it posted a growing net loss of $2.4 billion, mostly driven by a drop in value of its holding in Chinese ride service Didi and stock-based compensation.
Total revenue grew 72 per cent to $4.8 billion, above an average estimate of $4.4 billion, according to Refinitiv.
Revenue at its mobility unit, which includes its rides business, grew 62 per cent to $2.2 billion from last year. Despite the better earnings report than expected the shares were down 88 cents, or 2.2 per cent, at $45.24 in after-hours trading on Wall Street. Founded in 2009 in San Francisco, California, Uber is best known for its taxi-hailing app, which before the pandemic facilitated 21 million trips a day. The company, which was listed in May 2019, has a market value of about $88 billion
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Dara Khosrowshahi, chief executive, said this year’s Halloween weekend surpassed 2019 levels, suggesting that Americans were eager to go out.
US airport trips increased and were up 20 per cent from the beginning of September, while business trips rose by 60 per cent. Uber said that its core restaurant delivery business was profitable for the first time on adjusted ebitda in the third quarter.
