SAN FRANCISCO: Ride-hailing major Uber on Wednesday announced it will buy back company shares worth up to $7 billion after strong recovery in business last year.

The Board of Directors has authorised the repurchase of up to $7 billion of the company’s common stock, Uber said.

“Today’s authorisation of our first-ever share repurchase programme is a vote of confidence in the company’s strong financial momentum,” said Prashanth Mahendra-Rajah, Uber CFO.

“We will be thoughtful as it relates to the pace of our buyback, beginning with actions that partially offset stock-based compensation, and working towards a consistent reduction in share count,” Mahendra-Rajah added.

In its Q4 that ended December 31, 2023, Uber’s gross bookings grew 22 per cent year-over-year to $37.6 billion, with mobility gross bookings of $19.3 billion and delivery gross bookings of $17 billion. Trips during the quarter grew 24 per cent (on-year) to 2.6 billion, or approximately 28 million trips per day on average.

Revenue grew 15 per cent YoY to $9.9 bn and combined mobility and delivery revenue grew 22 per cent YoY to $8.7 bn.

“2023 was an inflection point for Uber, proving that we can continue to generate strong, profitable growth at scale,” said Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO.