By Augustin Eden, Research Analyst

I love Uber. Its digestible prices have allowed me to feel illustrious enough to travel by taxi rather than the night bus. I’ve had some great chats with Uber drivers too. It’s on a par with the black cab, that’s for sure – but I still love black cabs.

The Los Angeles-based ‘ride share’ firm is conducting an unrelenting assault on the industry worldwide. With an estimated 1200 new drivers starting work every month in London alone, such expansion is fuelling talk of an imminent  Uber IPO.

Uber owns no cars, and so its profits go into app development, customer acquisition including rebates to new ones and wages & infrastructure (pretty minimal given Uber’s global coverage). As the company continues to grow, it will need extra funds for the continual development of its services to maintain competitive advantage.

Furthermore, competing by offering the best prices in the face of stiff competition from challengers such as Lyft, Hailo and others will soon eat the profits of all involved. Without a doubt, acquisitions will be the main lifeline in the medium-term and the level of funding required for an acquisition could entail a flurry of IPOs in the sector. An Uber IPO could be closer than you thought.

If you’re active in the financial markets you’ll know that to be a good trader you have to be decisive and act with conviction. To survive in business it’s the same. Should Uber start buying out the competition before they get too big? How will Uber raise the funds?

Questions like these in a market that is moving faster and causing more exchange of feeling than virtually any other at the moment seems to indicate that an Uber IPO could happen in the not too distant future. By opening an account with Accendo Markets, you’ll have your very own dedicated trader who will ensure you are the first to know about a potential Uber IPO. Furthermore, we can provide you with trading facilities that would allow you to get in on an Uber IPO before the general public does.

Putting stock market chatter aside for a moment – an Uber IPO has not yet been announced – I wanted to have a think about the potential outlook for London. You see, London has been a centre of hot debate as Uber strides in with its horribly convenient app-based ‘ride sharing’ service and irritatingly good prices that have seen many stand firm with the challenger as the capital’s black cab drivers go on the defensive at the prospect of seeing their livelihood threatened.

But the issue is not about whether an Uber IPO could kick out London’s traditional taxis, rather how the evolution of the industry can be inclusive and productive for all – and most importantly preserve an essential part of the London experience.

Black cabs are as much a part of London as Buckingham Palace or the Natural History Museum, and to see them gone from London’s streets would be to see London lose a piece of its soul. Could an Uber IPO endow the company with the funds it needs to tone down the aggression and become a partner in London’s iconic taxi service? Or would fresh pressure to maximise dividend yield for shareholders create a corporate monster in Uber? Whatever the outcome, we must be sure of the possibility of an imminent Uber IPO.