Lyft’s $24bn float lifts Britain’s biggest investment trust

Britain’s biggest investment trust was among the winners of Lyft’s bumper New York flotation despite a fall in the taxi hailing company’s share price.

Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust, listed on the FTSE 100, invested around $20 million in the heavily oversubscribed float after becoming one of the UK institutions to receive an allocation of stock.

Shares have had a rocky start, falling 12%. Lyft was valued at $24.3 billion.

Scottish Mortgage backed Lyft when it was private, taking a stake worth £46 million as of September 2018.

It converted these shares into new public stock and invested more, taking the taxi app from 0.5% of assets to 0.8%.

“In the context of our previous investments into Lyft the day-to-day swings are comparatively minor if exhausting,” co-manager James Anderson said.

“Lyft has thus far exceeded their and our forecasts of progress in building revenue and share. Over the next decade we think it can take on its main enemy- car ownership not Uber.

“The eventual economics of this are potentially very favourable but there is much to be done and costs to be borne in the meantime.“

He added the trust, one of the UK’s biggest investors in US tech stocks, looks for “long-term pay-offs”.

Scottish Mortgage, managed by Baillie Gifford, was founded in 1909 and has assets of more than £7.5 billion.