Uber rival Lyft is reportedly planning for a stock market flotation as early as March 2019.
The ride-hailing company has hired IPO adviser Class V Group LLC to work on the matter and will take pitches from banks from September, according to Bloomberg.
“A variety of factors will determine if and when Lyft goes public, but in the meantime we are focused on building our business, which continues to grow,” said a spokesperson from the group.
“We don’t comment on rumors or speculation,” the spokesperson added.
If the group is to go public in March, it would go public before rival Uber.
Uber’s chief executive, Dara Khosrowshahi, has confirmed that his company are still planning for a planned public offering in the second half of this year.
Typically, similar companies do not want to begin selling shares at the same time in the fear that investor appetite might end following the first IPO.
However, Lyft also faces the risk that investors might wait for Uber’s flotation.
In February, Uber was valued at around $72 billion.
Uber’s incoming chief financial officer Nelson Chai did not seem as confident as Khosrowshahi about going public, he said in an interview with Axios earlier this month.
“I can’t say I’m on board yet with going public next year”, he said.
“I’ve been impressed with the information I’ve seen, but I don’t have enough insight until I really get in there to make sure we have the right processes and controls to be a public company.”
Travis Kalanick, Uber’s ousted boss, said before his resignation that he also wanted the group to float “as late as humanly possible”.
Kalanick left the group amid criticism over the company’s culture and after major investors asked him to leave. He still remains an important member of the company’s board.