Uber’s pandemic food delivery boom fails to offset ride-hailing drop
NEW YORK (BLOOMBERG) - Uber Technologies reported declining revenue in the fourth quarter, showing that demand for food delivery isn't making up for a falloff in ridership. Sales dropped 16 per cent to US$3.17 billion (S$4.2 billion), short of an average of analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Performance in Canada, Latin America and the US was particularly dismal. The stock was down about 4 per cent in extended trading. Despite the shortfall, Uber narrowed its loss in the quarter that ended in December, riding a wave of deals that shed some of its more fanciful pursuits. It turns out that autonomous vehicles and flying cars weren't helping Uber achieve its goal of a quarterly profit before interest, taxes and other expenses by the end of this year. In the fourth quarter, when it sold those two business units to star-ups in exchange for equity, Uber posted an adjusted loss of US$454 million, beating analysts' estimates. In its quarterly results released on Wednesday (Feb 10), Uber said it's still on track to turn an adjusted profit some time this year. And it disclosed yet another asset sale, confirming a Bloomberg report in September that it was selling part of its stake in th...
Singapore economy shrinks 5.8% in 2020 after contraction eases to 3.8% in Q4: Flash data
SINGAPORE - Singapore's economy contracted by 5.8 per cent for the whole of 2020, according to the Ministry of Trade and Industry's (MTI) advanced estimates released on Monday (Jan 4). For the fourth quarter of last year, the economy shrank by 3.8 per cent year on year, an improvement from a revised 5.6 per cent drop in the third quarter, as more coronavirus related curbs on economic activity were lifted. The economy's fourth quarter performance was also better than the 4.5 per cent year- on-year drop by economists in a Reuters poll. On a quarter-on-quarter seasonally-adjusted basis, the economy grew by 2.1 per cent, following the 9.5 per cent expansion in the third quarter. The strong GDP growth seen in the third quarter was due to the phased resumption of activities following the circuit breaker period stretching from April 7 to June 1, as well as the rebound in activity in major economies during the quarter as they emerged from their own lockdowns, MTI said. The full-year 2020 MTI estimate tops earlier forecasts of a contraction of 6.5 per cent to 6 per cent made last month and is much lower than a previous estimate of a 7 per cent to 5 per cent shrinkage. In its maiden forecast...