Landing soon – Airbnb IPO

Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles. Facebook, the world’s most popular media owner, creates no content. Alibaba, the most valuable retailer, has no inventory. And Airbnb, the world’s largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate. Uber, Facebook, and Alibaba have all gone public, but Airbnb has not. But that is about to change.

The home-rental company is set to go public on 10th December, in one of the most anticipated IPO’s of the year.

What is an Initial Public Offering (IPO)?

IPO is a type of public offering in which shares of a company are sold to investors. The company usually hires investment banks to market and understand the demand, set the IPO price and date, etc. It must meet requirements by exchanges and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) before holding an initial public offering (IPO).

About Airbnb

Airbnb, Inc. is an American accommodation rental online marketplace company founded in 2008 by Brian Chesky, Nathan Blecharczyk, and Joe Gebbia. It allows people to rent out their properties or spare rooms and is available in 191+ countries. Airbnb has more than 7m million listings on its platform, run by 4 million hosts worldwide. Its headquarters are located in San Francisco, California, United States, and it also has international offices around the world. The company employs over 6,300 people.

Expectations

The global pandemic has had a significant impact on the company’s finances. It brought in $2.5 billion in revenue in the first nine months of the year – down from $3.7 billion a year earlier. Companies net loss more than doubled during that period to $697 million. Year on year bookings down 72% in April and roughly 20% through June to September.

In a government filing in the United States, the home-sharing company said it expects to price its shares between $56-$60 each, up from a range of $44-$50 earlier this month. The new price range would increase the amount company is expected to raise to as much as $3.1 billion and increase its valuation to $42 billion from $35 billion at the top of the previous range. Airbnb does not intend to pay a dividend in the foreseeable future.

Airbnb shares will start trading on the US stock market from 2.30 pm (UK time) on 10th December with the symbol ABNB.