Airbnb Will Raise IPO Price Range 23% More than Expected

With the US market in a high zone buoyed by the arrival of multiple vaccines against the pandemic, Airbnb’s upcoming stock market premiere has stimulated investors’ voracious appetites. So much so that the company led by Brian Chesky and Nathan Blecharczyk has opted to increase the range of its share price for IPO on the Nasdaq.

The apartment and housing rental platform that has revolutionized the hotel and tourism industry plans to sell 51.6 million shares. The range of shares will move between 56 and 60 dollars. 

With these figures circulating among potential investors, Airbnb expects to raise 3.09 billion dollars. Which is 23% more in revenue than previously expected.

According to the consultancy Renaissance Capital, leadership in 2020 continues in Snowflake’s hands, which raised $3.36 billion with an IPO on September 16. Its holdings have accumulated a return of 223% since then.

At the higher end of the new range, Airbnb would have a fully-diluted valuation. Thus, including options as well as restricted stocks, of $ 41.8 billion.

This would be well above the $18 billion evaluation the company received in the first weeks of the pandemic during a private fundraising round last April. It also exceeded the $31 billion capitalization recorded in the private market in its previous fundraiser before the coronavirus correction in March 2017, when it raised $1 billion.

In the third quarter of 2020, the company achieved a net profit of $219 million 

The coronavirus crisis has reduced the company’s revenues by 19% compared to the same period last year, to $1.34 billion.

The fall in the second quarter was much more abrupt. So far this year the firm has recorded losses of almost 700 million dollars.

In this sense, the company pointed out that the pandemic and the actions to combat it, such as mobility restrictions, are the main burden on its accounts. It will continue to be so in the near future. So far this year, the company has needed to obtain liquidity to face the crisis. It signed a syndicated loan of $1 billion with institutional investors last April. Moreover, it received another $1 billion from private equity firms, Silver Lake and Sixth Street Partners.

According to Renaissance Capital, there have been 201 IPOs in the United States so far this year. Thus, achieving a total collection of $69.9 billion, its best value since 2014.