Home rental giant Airbnb announced that it is intending becoming listed company in 2020, making the company one of the most high-profile companies going to be publicly trading in the next year.
In a single-lined statement posted on its website last week, Airbnb did not mentioned any details on how it will conclude the plan of listing its shares on the stock market, but it is widely expected to be opting the way of a direct-listing.
A direct listing is way of going public in which companies are not required to be issuing new shares and choosing this route to become publicly traded company help them to save millions of dollars which they would have to spend on underwriting fees while going public through an initial public offering (IPO).
Several high-profile companies this year went public by marking stock market debuts which includes ride-hailing firms Lyft Inc and Uber technologies, but shares of those companies failed to perform well after the launch, in the midst of skepticism that investors have been showing over their strategies to become profitable.
And more recently, The We Company owner of WeWork has also came delaying its this month plan of initial public offering by turning its back on groundwork to launch after facing a dull response from investors.
But for Airbnb, market experts are in hopes that it might be receiving warmer welcome from investors at the time of its entrance into the share market, for their consideration of the company’s financials which show more stability than had recent internet unicorns went public recently.
Airbnb did not release details about its profitability in the second quarter of 2019 but shared last week that it has generated revenue of more than $1 billion in the second quarter.
Airbnb has previously reported positive EBITDA for 2017 and 2018.
