According to a Reuters report, Airbnb, an American vacation rental online marketplace company based in San Francisco, California, United States, is looking to IPO by December 2020. Airbnb is set to file for IPO registration for a debut on the New York stock market amidst the pandemic. All eyes are on Airbnb’s listing on the Nasdaq as company officials report an increase in demand for house rentals against hotel bookings due to global Covid-19 restrictions on travel and experience.
As per Reuters, earlier in April 2020, Airbnb secured a $1 billion loan just days after closing a $1 billion debt deal from Owl Rock, Sixth Street Partners, Silver Lake, Oaktree Capital Management, and Apollo Global Management. As it moved along, in August 2020, Airbnb filed for IPO, hoping to raise an additional $3 billion if not $30 billion in the evaluation. With hopes to hit Nasdaq in December 2020, by this week, the company is working on an IPO price range and an investor roadshow as the IPO committee reviews how the business championed the rental industry during the pandemic by shifting gears toward holiday homes instead of city accommodation.
In a recent Press Release, Airbnb, Co-Founder and CEO Brian Chesky have announced the Airbnb Host Endowment to support the host community starting now into the future. The endowment advisory board will be diverse, with 85 percent of the board members from outside the US and 55 percent women. Since Brian Chesky informed about further disclosure to be made by late December 2020, it can be assumed that the anticipated success with IPO evaluation will have a significant bearing on Brian’s plan.
With Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc as to the leading underwriters for this IPO listing, Airbnb is on a dramatic recovery that impacted the travel industry to the core. It is also a bit of a relaxant as the EU gets ready to classify Airbnb as a “gatekeeper.” As per the new Digital Markets Act, Airbnb, labeled as the gatekeeper, will force the company to share its customer data with smaller rivals and not ban them on their platforms from accessing products and services for any preferential treatment. The listing in Nasdaq, for sure, will brand how Airbnb will become synonymous with “short term rentals,” therefore making the gatekeeper status in the EU unavoidable.