Airbnb priced its shares at $68 each on Wednesday ahead of its highly anticipated initial public offering.
The final price came in well above its previously expected range as heightened investor demand for the offering pushed the price higher. Airbnb initially priced the expected range of its IPO shares at $44 to $50, which was subsequently raised to $56 to $60.
The increase in the price of its shares might be spurred by the success seen on DoorDash’s debut at 78% above its initial-public-offering (IPO) price.
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Airbnb’s IPO will raise $3.5 billion in funds for the company, giving it an initial valuation of $47.3 billion. The firm will trade on the Nasdaq exchange under the ticker symbol “ABNB.”
In its last private funding round in April, when the home-sharing company raised $1 billion amid the pandemic, Airbnb was valued at $18 billion, representing a sizable cut to its 2017 valuation of $31 billion. The company has more than recouped that valuation cut in its IPO debut.
Airbnb is available in 191+ countries with more than 4 million Airbnb hosts
The S-1 filing revealed the company suffered a net loss of $696.9 million during the first three quarters of 2020 but reported $2.52 billion in revenue. The pandemic has slammed Airbnb’s business, forcing the startup to lay off 25% of its workers and battering its booking revenue by 72% in Q2 amid pandemic-driven travel restrictions.
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Airbnb reported $2.5 billion in revenue for the first nine months of this year – down 32% from the first nine months of 2019 – and a net loss of $696.9 million during that same period.
Airbnb has led high-profile IPOs in late 2020, joining the likes of DoorDash and Affirm. While many expected the IPO to be closed shut in 2020 given the COVID-19 pandemic and volatile stock market that experienced as 35% decline earlier this year, a strong recovery in both stocks and investor confidence has reopened the IPO window for many high-profile private companies.
According to Bloomberg data, US listings have already raised a record $156 billion in 2020, in part fueled by the rise in blank-check special-purpose acquisition companies.
Morgan Stanley is serving as the lead underwriter for Airbnb’s debut.
With the shares of the home-sharing company scheduled to begin trading on Thursday, David Trainer, New Constructs founder and CEO, says the IPO is reasonably valued.
If the firm doubles down on cost efficiency, while sacrificing revenue growth, and were to achieve profitability on par with Booking Holdings, Airbnb could be worth $58.7 billion, he added.
By: Ifunanya Ikueze
