(Adds details, background on IPOs)April 8 (Reuters) - Pinterest Inc on Monday set a pricerange of $15 to $17 per share for its initial public offering of75 million shares, valuing it below the $12 billion at which theonline image-search company sourced its last fundraising in2017.
At the upper end of its target range, the company could havea market valuation of about $11.30 billion and could raise $1.3billion in net proceeds, taking into account restricted stockunits and options.Reuters had reported in January Pinterest, which plans tolist under the symbol "PINS" on the New York Stock Exchange,could raise around $1.5 billion and that the IPO was likely tocome in the first six months of 2019.The company, which owns the image search website known forthe food and fashion photos that its users post, reported annualrevenue of $755.9 million in 2018, up 60 percent from a yearearlier.
But it remains unprofitable even though its net lossnarrowed to $62.97 million in 2018 from $130 million a yearearlier.The company will go public with a dual-class share structureto concentrate voting power with Class B shareholders, whichincluded Co-founder, President and Chief Executive OfficerBenjamin Silbermann, according to a filing with the U.S.Securities and Exchange Commission.Pinterest would join a bevy of high-profile companies thatwent public, including Lyft Inc and Levi Strauss .
Ride-hailing company Uber Technologies Inc is alsoexpected to kick off its IPO this month, according to sources.Profitability has been a key theme for companies that havegone public since the start of the year. Lyft's shares slippedbelow their IPO price on the second day after its debut asanalysts did not see a clear path to profitability. IPOs of Pinterest and other such loss-making unicorns have
presented a predicament for investors sitting on the fence sincethey do not want to miss out on popular companies with fastgrowth, but at the same time have to weigh the risks ofbusinesses with unproven economics.
(Reporting by Aparajita Saxena and John Benny; Editing by ArunKoyyur)