Uber’s Q4 sales vroom 61% to $2B

san francisco — Uber Technologies had a painful 2017, but the business managed to grow.

Adjusted net revenue last quarter increased 61 per cent to $2.22 billion from the same period in 2016. Meanwhile, the total value of fares grew to $11 billion that quarter. It was the first full quarter under Dara Khosrowshahi, who took over the troubled business in September.

Despite a turbulent year for the ride-hailing company, sales were $7.5 billion. But the company also posted a substantial loss of $4.5 billion. There are few historical precedents for the scale of its loss.

Uber isn’t publicly traded but has chosen to release select financial information to investors and the public in recent quarters. Last month, SoftBank Group led a $9.3 billion investment deal to make itself the largest shareholder in the San Franciscobased company.

The latest financial report shows the company continues to increase its revenue while making progress on cutting its loss. Uber’s loss is based on generally accepted accounting principles, which includes writedowns, as well as the company’s enormous legal expenses, such as the cost of defending against a trade secrets lawsuit from Alphabet’s Waymo. Uber agreed to give Waymo stock valued at $245 million to settle the suit last week.

Uber prefers to use a different number to refer to its loss: $2.2 billion. The figure leaves out legal costs and stock-based compensation, as well as taxes, interest and other expenses. Uber concluded the year with about $6 billion in cash, 13 per cent less than the year before.

Khosrowshahi spoke with investors on a conference call on Tuesday. — Bloomberg