Lyft aims to beat Uber to U.S. stock market

SAN FRANCISCO — Lyft still hasn't caught up to Uber in the rapidly growing ride-hailing market, but it's ahead in the race to sell its stock on the public market where the two companies could potentially raise billions to help finance their expansion.

The San Francisco company has taken the first step toward listing its shares on the U.S. stock market by filing confidential documents for an initial public offering. The filing, announced by Lyft Thursday, is expected to become publicly available early next year, a few weeks before Lyft's investment banks price the shares after gauging investor demand.

Both the IPO price and the number of shares that will be sold will be revealed leading up to Lyft's stock market debut.

Lyft's IPO is expected to generate intense interest while helping to set the stage for Uber to go public. Uber has already disclosed it will go public next year, but hasn't indicated when.