Airbnb Hit Hard by COVID-19 "IPO to Proceed as Planned"

Reservation Count Exceeds 1 Million as of Last Month... First Time Since March

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] Airbnb, a lodging sharing company hit hard by the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), is proceeding with its planned initial public offering (IPO).

According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on the 11th (local time), Airbnb is expected to submit documents for the IPO to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by the end of this month. The lead underwriters are known to be Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.

Airbnb plans to complete the IPO within this year.

Three years ago, when Airbnb initially raised funds from investors, its corporate value reached $31 billion (approximately 37 trillion KRW), but due to the impact of COVID-19 and other factors, it has recently decreased to around $18 billion (approximately 21 trillion KRW).

Because of this, there were forecasts that Airbnb's IPO, originally scheduled for this year, might not proceed as planned.

However, as COVID-19 has recently shown signs of subsiding and Airbnb's reservation numbers have increased, WSJ analyzed that the company decided to proceed with the IPO as planned.

According to Airbnb, as of the 8th of last month, the number of lodging reservations exceeded 1 million. This is the first time since March.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.