(Bloomberg) -- Uber Technologies Inc. was told by Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. that the ride-hailing company could be valued at about $120 billion in an initial public offering next year, people familiar with the matter said.

While Uber Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi has repeatedly said it’s targeting a public offering in the second half of 2019, the company is now considering moving up that target date, said some of the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private.

Public investors ultimately will decide what Uber is worth. The bankers’ speculative valuation is a 58 percent increase over the price at which Toyota Motor Corp. invested $500 million in August. It’s a 122 percent increase over the blended price that SoftBank Group Corp. paid to invest in Uber.

The largest IPO to date is Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s $25 billion offering in 2014. SoftBank’s expected listing of its Japanese mobile unit is expected to best Alibaba’s IPO. SoftBank has picked advisers to help sell about a one-third stake that could value the wireless business at more than $80 billion, people familiar with the matter said last week.

Representatives for Uber, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs declined to comment. The proposed valuation was reported earlier by the Wall Street Journal.

San Francisco-based Uber has lost billions of dollars since its founding and isn’t projecting to turn a profit any time soon. Instead, the company has begun to tack on a slate of new businesses that help explain those losses and drive revenue growth.

Rival Lyft Inc. is looking to go public in March or April, people familiar with that matter have said. An earlier IPO on Uber’s part could disrupt those plans.

Lyft has selected JPMorgan Chase & Co., along with Credit Suisse Group AG and Jefferies Group, to lead an offering valuing it at more than $15.1 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

Bank Pitches

Banks create IPO valuation scenarios before a company requests pitches in an attempt to win business when it’s ready to proceed with a listing. A company the size of Uber will receive estimates from multiple firms, especially as it has indicated that it’s getting close to going public.

For the biggest private technology companies, valuation expectations can change drastically in the months leading up to a listing. Snap Inc.’s valuation was seen as being as high as $40 billion five months before its IPO last year, a person familiar said at the time. The company’s IPO ended up valuing it at about $20 billion.

In June, Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp. went public in Hong Kong at a $54 billion valuation after targeting $100 billion just months prior.

To contact the reporters on this story: Eric Newcomer in San Francisco at enewcomer@bloomberg.net;Alex Barinka in San Francisco at abarinka2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Mark Milian at mmilian@bloomberg.net, ;Elizabeth Fournier at efournier5@bloomberg.net, Michael Hytha

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