Uber Raises Earnings Forecast Amidst Ride-Hailing Surge

Uber Technologies has raised its earnings forecast for the current quarter, an indication that demand for ride-hailing is recovering faster than expected from the impact of the Covid-19 Omicron variant at the beginning of the year.

The company said adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation were expected to be in the $130 million (£98m) to $150m range.

That is higher than the $100m to $130m it had predicted last month when announcing its fourth-quarter results.

“Our mobility business is bouncing back from omicron much faster than we expected,” said cheif executive Dara Khosrowshahi in a Monday regulatory filing.

‘Growing demand’

“Whether for travel, commuting, or going out at night, we’re seeing healthy and growing demand across all use cases, highlighting just how eager consumers are to get moving again.”

He said airport gross bookings at the end of February were up more than 50 percent from the previous month, and that he expected the upcoming travel season to be “one of the strongest ever”.

In February trips recovered to 90 percent and mobility gross bokings to 95 percent compared with the same period in 2019, before the pandemic.

At the same time, Uber’s delivery business, which includes Uber Eats, continued to see the strong demand that has risen during the pandemic, with an annualised run rate for bookings reaching an all-time high in February.

Russia exit

Mobility and delivery segments saw sequential improvement adjusted earnings in the current period compared with the fourth quarter, the filing said.

Uber reported revenues of $5.8bn for the quarter ending 31 December and said it had the most active users in its history.

The company, along with its competitor, Estonian mobility company Bolt, said last week it would pull out of Russia in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, accelerating earlier moves to sell off its stake in a joint venture with Yandex.

However, China-based ride-hailing firm Didi reversed an earlier announcement that it would leave Russia, and said it would continue doing business there, in response to what industry watchers said was pressure from the Chinese government to show solidarity with Russia.