Airbnb filing shows effect of pandemic on travel industry

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Airbnb Inc., after years of speculation, revealed its plans for an initial public offering, disclosing increased losses this year and other details about its finances and operations.
The San Francisco home rental platform in its filing on Monday marked the size of the offering at $ 1 billion, a placeholder that will change as its bankers test demand for the stocks. The number of shares for sale and their proposed price range will be disclosed in a subsequent file. People familiar with the company’s plans have said it will look to raise up to $ 3 billion in an IPO in December.
The list is set to be one of the largest for this year, ending an IPO surge that has largely defied the economic devastation inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The company’s file confirms the damage it suffered as the pandemic ravaged the travel industry. Airbnb said it suffered a net loss of $ 697 million on revenue of $ 2.5 billion for the nine months ending September 30. That compared to a net loss of $ 323 million on revenue of $ 3.7 billion for the same period last year.
The potential valuation of the company on an IPO cannot be calculated with precision until the proposed terms and other details are revealed in the subsequent filing. Previous calculations have fluctuated with the rise, fall and rebound in its business, as well as the reasons for the valuation.
Although Airbnb’s valuation reached $ 31 billion in a funding round in 2017, warrants from an April cycle of debt and equity securities including Silver Lake and Sixth Street Partners did not. estimated that at $ 18 billion, Bloomberg reported.
A calculation related to employee compensation and tax reporting estimated the value at around $ 22 billion as of September 30, people familiar with the matter said. This valuation reflected the appraised value of common shares held by employees at the time. This is a different measure of the often higher valuation that venture capitalists pay for preferred stocks that would come into play during the IPO.
Airbnb’s offering will be led by Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The company plans to trade its shares on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol ABNB.
The listing venue was a victory for Nasdaq Inc. on the New York Stock Exchange. Airbnb’s listing is expected to be the highest on the Nasdaq since Facebook Inc.’s IPO in 2012.
Airbnb is set to join food delivery company DoorDash Inc., which filed an IPO on Friday, to close what is already a banner year for IPOs. Driven mainly by the proliferation of special purpose acquisition companies and to a lesser extent by software companies, an all-time high of over $ 141 billion was raised on U.S. stock exchanges in 2020, according to data compiled by Bloomberg .
Along with Airbnb and DoorDash, online discount retailer Wish Inc. and installment loan provider Affirm Inc. are expected to complete their IPOs by the end of the year, people familiar with their plans said.
After its business was strangled by the pandemic in March, Airbnb began to see signs of a recovery in June, with bookings down just 30% for the month from 2019, people familiar with the matter said. That is compared to a 70% drop in May from a year earlier.
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