Airbnb’s valuation soars to US$47 billion after pricing its stock offer above range, seizing on investor demand
- Airbnb and its investors sold about 52 million shares on December 9 for US$68 each after marketing them for US$56 to US$60 apiece
- Airbnb’s offering is being led by Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group. Shares of Airbnb are expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq under the symbol ABNB
Airbnb priced its long-awaited initial public offering above a marketed range to raise about US$3.5 billion, seizing on investor demand for a home-rental business roaring back from a pandemic-fuelled slump.
The company’s IPO came just hours after DoorDash almost doubled from its listing price in its debut trading session, adding to a flurry of consumer-facing web-based companies going public this month.
Airbnb and its investors sold about 52 million shares on December 9 for US$68 each after marketing them for US$56 to US$60 apiece, it said in a statement confirming an earlier Bloomberg report. At that price, Airbnb has a fully diluted value of about US$47 billion, which includes employee stock options and restricted stock units.
Airbnb’s listing adds to what was already a record year for IPOs, with more than US$163 billion raised on US exchanges, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
That includes DoorDash’s US$3.37 billion offering. Other companies lined up for IPOs this month include video-game company Roblox, instalment loans provider Affirm Holdings and ContextLogic, the parent of online discount retailer Wish.
DoorDash’s first-day surge propelled its valuation, including employee stock options and restricted stock units, to about US$71 billion.
For Airbnb to hang on to any lofty valuation, it will need to grapple with a litany of threats, as outlined in its IPO prospectus, ranging from a surge in party houses that carry liability risks to an increase in professionally run properties that lack the charm that made Airbnb rentals famous.