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 US$1.27 billion.
GM owns more than 18.6 million Class A shares, according to the Lyft filing, meaning its investment at the outset could be worth US$1.16 billion to US$1.27 billion. GM invested $500 million in Lyft in January 2016. Several shareholders would like to see GM sell the stake and use the proceeds to repurchase shares or pay a special dividend.“If I want to buy Lyft, I’ll go do it myself,” said Scott Schermerhorn, managing principal with Granite Investment Advisors, which owns more than 210,000 GM shares. “Take the proceeds and invest it in something that’s core to their business or give it back to shareholders.”