London - Anyone wanting to own a slice of rapidly growing taxi app Uber may be waiting for a while yet.
Travis Kalanick, the chief of the controversial company that was worth more than $60bn (£42bn) at its last valuation, says he has put a stock market listing right at the bottom of his list of priorities.
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“I'm going to make sure it happens as late as possible,” he told CNBC.
Kalanick added that Uber first had a “moral obligation” to start-up investors and employees who owned equity.
He also warned that investment in tech companies had reached an “irrational place”.
“What I like to say when you get into something that feels like a bubble or, at least, feels irrational, is that you still want to build a company that has a strong, disciplined, business-building culture,” he said.
Uber has raised $10bn so far, some of which has been spent on an aggressive overseas expansion.
Kalanick has plans to up Uber's public relations efforts after clashes with various regulators, reports of driver misconduct and a furore over a senior executive's suggestion that the firm would hire researchers to “dig up dirt” on journalists.
“What I've learned as we've gotten bigger is that it's really, really important for us to take all the opportunities to tell our story. Because, as we grow and have a bigger impact on cities, if we don't tell our story, somebody else will.”
THE INDEPENDENT