Airbnb Files for IPO as Short-Term Rental Market Rebounds

Short-term dwelling rental agency Airbnb acknowledged on Wednesday it filed confidentially for an preliminary public offering with US regulators, setting the stage for one amongst 2020’s marquee US stock market debuts.

The switch underscores a rebound in parts of the journey commerce, which was battered this yr by restrictions and shutdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

San Francisco-based Airbnb acknowledged in July that prospects had booked larger than 1 million nights in a single day for the first time since March 3, partially as US vacationers draw again from lodging and wish to drive to native journey leases.

Shares of US on-line journey firm Booking Holdings have rebounded spherical 14 p.c beforehand three months nonetheless are nonetheless down for the yr.

Companies can confidentially submit an IPO registration with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. If Airbnb strikes forward with the IPO, the submitting could possibly be made public nearer to the time of the itemizing.

The number of shares Airbnb will promote and the valuation it should search have not however been determined, Airbnb acknowledged in a press launch.

Airbnb did not give a timeline for when it may full its IPO. The agency is specializing in a listing sooner than the highest of the yr, in line with a person accustomed to the matter, cautioning that’s dependant on market conditions.

The collapse of Airbnb’s core home-rental enterprise due to the COVID-19 pandemic had prompted Airbnb to droop promoting and advertising actions for the yr and reduce about 25 p.c of its workforce.

The agency in April moreover raised $2 billion (roughly Rs. 15,009 crores) in debt from patrons, which valued it at $18 billion (roughly Rs. 1,35,000 crores), properly underneath the $26 billion (roughly Rs. 1.95,000 crores) Airbnb cited as an inside valuation in early March.

“The company may be thinking that the lost value they’ve realised in 2020 could be recouped as a public company and that will be reflected in the upside in their stock price,” acknowledged Andrea Walne, regular affiliate at Manhattan Venture Partners, an Airbnb investor.

Airbnb’s option to go public received right here as US capital markets stage a surprising restoration, with the likes of on-line used car vendor Vroom and enterprise intelligence platform ZoomInfo Technologies seeing their shares surge after going public.

“We believe that investors are willing to look beyond COVID issues and value companies based upon post-COVID scenarios. It’s a constructive IPO market,” acknowledged Kathleen Smith, principal at Renaissance Capital, a provider of institutional evaluation and IPO ETFs.

© Thomson Reuters 2020

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