Uber is already a full-fledged business. After years of accumulating multimillion-dollar losses as the price for achieving greater growth (and as a toll of the pandemic), the company has closed 2023 with profits of 1,887 million dollars (about 1,750 million euros, at the current exchange rate), the first since it went public in 2019. The company has had three quarters of operating profit and has surpassed the break-even point in a way that seems definitive while continuing to grow at full speed.
The company founded by Travis Kalanick had revenues of $37,281 million in 2023, 17% more than the previous year. That figure is what the company has left of gross reserves amounting to 137,865 million dollars, 19% more than a year before. The annual operating result was positive for the first time, amounting to 1.11 billion dollars. The net profit was the aforementioned 1,887 million, which contrasts with losses of 9,141 million in 2022, according to the accounts published this Wednesday by the company.
“2023 was a turning point for Uber, demonstrating that we can continue to generate strong and profitable growth at scale,” said CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. “The fourth quarter was an outstanding quarter to cap off an outstanding year. Consumer activity remained healthy around the world, supported by the continued shift of spending from retail to services. “Our consumer base is now larger and more engaged than ever,” the executive told analysts.
Uber has doubled its stock market value in the last 12 months and has a market capitalization of $145 billion.
The group based in San Francisco (California) already achieved a profit of 997 million dollars in 2018, before going public, but this was due to extraordinary capital gains, mainly from the sale of the business in Southeast Asia, due to latent capital gains. in its Chinese subsidiary Didi. Its operating result continued to be heavy losses. The red numbers skyrocketed with the pandemic. Uber had losses of 8,506 million dollars in 2019; from 6,768 million in 2020, it reduced them to only 496 million in 2021, before a record of 9,141 million losses in 2022. Now, it has completely turned the income statement around.
In the fourth quarter of the year, gross reserves grew 22% year-on-year, up to 37,575 million dollars, of which mobility contributes some 19,300 million dollars (+29%) and distribution some 17,000 million (+19%). Trips during the quarter grew 24% year-on-year, up to 2.6 billion, equivalent to an average of approximately 28 million daily trips. It is the freight business, the cargo business, that continues to fail, with revenues of 1.3 billion dollars, which represents a drop of 17% year-on-year, as a “consequence of the difficult cycle of the freight transportation market,” according to the company.
In those last three months of the year, revenue grew 15% year-on-year, up to $9,936 million. Combined mobility and delivery revenue grew 22% year-on-year to $8.7 billion. The quarterly operating results were 652 million dollars, compared to losses of 142 million a year earlier and the net profit amounted to 1,429 million, although it includes a result of 1,000 million dollars in latent capital gains related to the revaluation of the investments of capital of Uber.
For the first quarter of 2024, the company forecasts gross reserves of $37 billion to $38.5 billion and adjusted gross operating income of $1.26 billion to $1.34 billion, forecasts that have left investors somewhat cold.
“Our strategy is working and we are demonstrating that we are the platform that defines the category,” Khosrowshahi told analysts. “I am excited about the pace of innovation and momentum I see across the company. We will continue to take advantage of the great and valuable opportunities that are presented to us. “We remain well positioned to sustainably generate leading long-term shareholder value.”
Uber's improving profitability and increased cash flow have allowed it to follow through on an earlier promise to return capital to shareholders. The company will provide more details on these plans at an investor event next week. “Uber's platform advantages and disciplined investment in new growth opportunities resulted in record engagement and acceleration in gross bookings in the fourth quarter,” said Prashanth Mahendra-Rajah, chief financial officer. “We look forward to sharing more about our strategy and capital allocation plans in our Investor Update next week.”
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