BofA expects new Uber CFO to have greater focus on operational efficiencies

After Uber (NYSE:) announced this week that Prashanth Mahendra-Rajah will be appointed as CFO and SVP of Finance, effective November 13, BofA analysts released an upbeat note on the company’s management change.

They stated that “Mahendra-Rajh has been recognized by Institutional Investor as a Top CFO in the Semiconductor industry in 2020, 2021 and 2022, and he is a member of CNBC’s Global CFO Council.”

“We expect [the] new CFO to have greater focus on operational efficiencies,” they added.

The analysts feel that under current CFO Nelson Chai’s leadership, Uber has evolved into a more streamlined and disciplined company, with the divestitures of some international operations and the self-driving technology group, and concrete incremental margin targets.

“We expect key initiatives for CFO Mahendra-Rajah will be driving operational excellence and margin efficiency, continuing the drive towards investment-grade capital structure (Uber’s credit rating was recently increased from B+ to BB- by S&P), planning for cash returns to shareholders, as well as potentially spinning off Uber Freight,” they said.

“As for guidance on 2024, we would expect Uber to hold off offering any outlook until the Feb. call, but we would expect the framework of at least 7% incremental margins on bookings growth to continue.”