GM considers options for its Lyft stake following IPO

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As Lyft Inc cruises toward an initial public offering this month, one of the big winners will be General Motors Co, whose stake in the ride-hailing firm could be worth as much as 1.27 billion U.S. dollars.

GM is not talking about its plans for that investment, and investors polled by Reuters, owning a collective 35.7 million shares, do not have a consensus view.

Some believe the No. 1 U.S. automaker should hold on to it for strategic reasons, while others want the money returned to shareholders through buybacks or a special dividend.

“Unless GM can leverage its investment in Lyft to accelerate its own robo-taxi ambitions with Cruise, we believe it would be appropriate to cash out its stake to repurchase its own under-valued shares,” said Michael Razewski, a partner with Douglas C. Lane & Associates, which owned about 2.6 million GM shares at the end of 2018.

Cruise Automation is GM's self-driving car unit.

Lyft on Monday launched the investor “roadshow” for the March 29 IPO, and it said it to sell Class A shares at 62 to 68 dollars a share.

Source(s): Reuters