Uber 'losing $470m on revenues of $415m - report

'They're old numbers and out-of-date,' insists money-seeking Uber

A bond prospectus issued on behalf of aggressive cab-app company Uber reveals that it is running an eye-watering operating loss of almost $470m - on revenues of just $415m.

But Uber has rubbished the figures, revealed by the Bloomberg newswire, as "substantially old numbers that do not reflect business activities today". Bloomberg, furthermore, admits that it does not know whether they are quarterly or full-year figures and cannot say where the data comes from.

Uber is currently trying to raise as much as $1bn in new funding from Hillhouse Capital Group, a Chinese investment management firm, although if its financials are anything like as bad as suggested in the Bloomberg report, it may struggle to complete the bond issue.

"The term sheet viewed by Bloomberg News, which is being used to sell $1bn to $1.2bn in convertible bonds, doesn't make clear the time period for those results. The document also touts 300 per cent year-over-year growth," claims Bloomberg in its report.

It also explains why Uber has chosen a less conventional route in a bid to raise funds, especially when the market for new issues in the internet and technology sectors is currently so strong. Sophos, for example, successfully floated on the London Stock Exchange on Friday with a £1bn-plus valuation.

The bonds that Uber is currently touting will mature in 2022 - by which the time the company will have floated or disappeared - and come with an eight per cent annual return, if held through maturity, reports Bloomberg. But for a supposedly fast-growing company, though, Uber has proved to be uber-secretive about its growth and finances, even with prospective investors.

And the disclosures by Bloomberg may lend weight to arguments that the technology and broader internet industries are currently in a grossly over-inflated bubble, due to low interest rates and governments' loose fiscal policies over the past six years or so.

Indeed, last month, it was disclosed that Uber values itself at $50bn - an impressive figure for a taxi company that acts as a middle man, with little more than a mobile app as its main asset.