On Wednesday, San Francisco based company, Airbnb, reported filing for an IPO with US regulators confidentially, which marks one of the most anticipated US stock exchange debuts for the year.
The move came after the home rental firm Airbnb posted users on the app booked 1 million customer nights for the first time in a single day in July since March 3, as more people, especially US customers, are being resistant towards hotels and motels, preferring local rentals for a vacation drive. Moreover, the decision came when the travel industry, hit majorly by the lockdown, restrictions, and shutdowns due to COVID pandemic, is showing firm hopes for a rebound.
Additionally, American Travel Company, Booking Holdings Inc.’s, stocks have corrected 14% in the last three months but are still below the pre-pandemic level.
Airbnb is targeting to complete the IPO process and go public before the end of the year but did not give a fixed timeline for the same. Any company can file for an IPO confidentially with the US SEC (Securities & Exchange Commission), and the company shall announce it some days before going public. The company said that the number of shares and its price is not decided yet.
In the meantime, the company raised around $2B in April as debt from investors, making it a firm valued at $18 billion, which is massive but still below the $26 billion cited by the travel firm in early March. This was majorly led by the firm’s operation drastically hit by the corona crisis, which urged the travel organisation to cut 25% jobs and shut down all its marketing activities for the year.