Uber and Lyft are still waiting for feedback from the U.S. securities regulator on their confidential submissions for IPOs, Bloomberg reports tonight, citing people familiar with the matter who aren't disclosing their identities.
Donald Trump’s government shutdown over his demand for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border has effectively halted all but basic operations at the Securities and Exchange Commission. No SEC means no IPOs.
From Bloomberg, on how this impacts the Uber and Lyft IPO plans:
The San Francisco ride-hailing companies, likely to have two of the year’s biggest offerings, believe the shutdown could slow their public debuts depending on how long it takes for the SEC to reopen and how substantial the agency’s feedback is when it does, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans were private. Uber and Lyft had been targeting their IPOs for the first half of the year.
Spokesmen for Uber and Lyft declined to comment. In an emailed statement, the SEC wrote: “Prior to the shutdown taking effect, we encouraged filers to reach out to us to ask for acceleration of the effectiveness of pending registration statements, and we declared approximately a dozen registration statements effective.”
The U.S. shutdown has left hundreds of thousands of workers furloughed or instructed to work without pay. It’s poised to affect deals of all sizes. Eli Lilly & Co. said Tuesday that the SEC is creating “a problem” for the company’s plan to sell stock in a unit it spun off last year. Also on Tuesday, a pair of oil companies postponed the termination date of a $900-million merger, citing the shutdown.
