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- Leading home rental platform Airbnb has raised the price of its shares ahead of its hotly-anticipated listing on the U.S. Nasdaq stock market
- Ahead of the initial public offering on Thursday, the company has bumped up the price of its shares to US$56 to US$60 each (roughly A$75 to A$81)
- At that price, Airbnb could list with a market capitalisation of US$42 billion (around A$57 billion)
- The business is expected to announce a final share price on Wednesday before it lists on the New York-based stock exchange the following day
- The share price bump comes in response to Airbnb’s surprise profit posted over the third quarter of 2020
- Airbnb’s public debut is expected to be one of the biggest U.S. IPO’s of the year
Airbnb has raised the price of its shares ahead of its hotly-anticipated listing on the U.S. Nasdaq stock market.
The leading home rental platform will list on the Nasdaq on Thursday, following years of teasing the move.
Ahead of the listing, Airbnb has upped the price of its shares as part of the initial public listing.
The company initially planned to sell shares for between US$44 and US$50 (roughly A$59 and A$67) each but bumped this up to between US$56 and US$60 (roughly A$75 and A$81) per share today.
This means the home rental giant will bag a neat 27 per cent more at the bottom end of its IPO and 20 per cent more at the top end. The final share price is expected to be announced later this week.
Airbnb plans to sell 50 million shares in its public offering, raising over US$3 billion (around A$4 billion) and giving the company a market value at listing of a neat US$42 billion (around A$57 billion).
The IPO is slated for December 10 and will trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker code ABNB.
Surprising cashflow
Airbnb — and, truly, the global travel and tourism sector — was dealt a heavy blow by coronavirus-induced lockdowns and government restrictions across the globe.
In May, the company had to slash almost 2000 jobs and sever non-core projects as it dealt with the immediate aftermath of the virus outbreak.
The result was a major decrease in revenue for the June quarter of 2020, with Airbnb bringing in just US$335 million (around A$451 million) over the quarter compared to over US$1 billion (around A$1.4 billion) from the same time last year.
The company tabled a quarterly loss before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation of US$400 million (around A$538 million).
However, Airbnb posted a surprising profit in the third quarter of 2020 as restrictions began to ease across the world, but people felt more comfortable booking homes than hotels.
The company posted a quarterly profit of US$219 million (roughly A$295 million) for the September quarter of 2020 thanks to some prudent cost-saving measures in response to COVID-19.
This prompted the share-price bump for the company’s upcoming listing and means the Airbnb debut will be one of the biggest IPOs of 2020.
