Uber to sell Didi's stake as it is 'not strategic', said CEO

Uber is reportedly planning to sell non-strategic investments in other companies, including shares in Chinese rail-hailing company Didi Global as the company believed that the stake is not strategic. 

CEO of Uber Technologies Dara Khosrowshahi said at a chat with a UBS analyst that the company would continue to hold some stakes of companies in which Uber has invested in for strategic reasons, but it would sell many of them, according to a report from Reuters. Uber is also planning to sell Didi's stake as it is not strategic. Khosrowshahi added that Didi is Uber's competitor and China "is a difficult environment with very little transparency."

But the company will not rush to sell the shares and it is planning to "monetise smartly over time." Uber's Didi stake recorded a US$2.4 billion loss in Q3, despite its operational business achieving profitability on an adjusted earnings basis for the first time. Reuters said Uber's investments in Didi amounted to about US$4.1 billion.

Didi has been facing pressure from the Chinese authorities since its IPO in the US in June. In early December, it announced that it was planning to delist from the US and list in Hong Kong.

On its Weibo account, the company said on Friday that after meticulous study, it will start working on the delisting and kicking off the listing in Hong Kong. It offered no other information on Weibo. Moreover, on its website, it said, "The board of directors has authorised and supports the company to undertake the necessary procedures and file the relevant applications for the delisting of the company’s ADSs (American depositary share) from the New York Stock Exchange, while ensuring that ADSs will be convertible into freely tradable shares of the company on another internationally recognised stock exchange at the election of ADS holders."

In late November, Chinese regulators asked Didi's executives to work on a plan to delist from the US due to concerns about leakage of sensitive data.

Didi Chuxing drew ire from the Chinese authorities as it listed in the New York Stock Exchange in June. Didi Chuxing had its IPO on 30 June in the US but soon after this, the Chinese government asked it to remove from app stores due to serious violations on Didi Global's collection and usage of personal information. Multiple reports said the Cyberspace Administration of China announced the ban after the IPO, just two days after the regulator said it was starting a cybersecurity review of the company.

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