Despite the tremendous suffering of the travel and hospitality sector due to an epidemic that is still ravaging the bones of this industry, and which has led many companies to the brink of bankruptcy, from airlines to car rental and tourism companies, airbnb Airbnb, which is affiliated with this sector, has fought A great adventure to put its shares up for public subscription, but it benefited greatly from the timing of the stock market gains and the liquidity momentum !!
The airbnb public offering came at a time when US stock markets rose to record highs and investors met the new issues with enthusiasm as $ 140 billion in stock sales on the US stock exchange have been raised so far this year, beating the record for the year The entire $ 107 billion mark at the height of the dotcom boom in 1999
And last week was a witness to the most prominent IPOs in the year of the Corona, where the first appearance of Airbnb on the Nasdaq was very impressive, as the stock opened transactions at 146 dollars to record after that a historical spike at the level of 164 dollars !! Which returned directly during 7 trading sessions to the level of 122 dollars p>
to be, in spite of this large fluctuation, much higher than the initial public offering price of $ 68, which was originally even more than the company’s expectations of $ 60 per share with 51.6 million shares offered for subscription, thus, the market value jumped The company operating in real estate rental and hospitality services while traveling has reached $ 100 billion, and although it lost part of the gains, it is still much higher than the same company’s $ 47 billion valuation at the time of subscription.
and the share gains that made the market value of airbnb surpassing the travel and hospitality giants such as Marriott, Expedia and Bucking.com, was amazing even for the company's founder Brian Chesky and made him say: We know we are on a long journey, the higher the share price The higher the expectations, and of course the more difficult the work we do.
Of course, it is surprising and interesting that the American company achieved these strong gains, and is making public offering at a time when the travel and hospitality sector in general suffers from a crisis, and losses may reach 118.5 billion dollars this year, according to IATA forecasts As a result of the decrease in the number of passengers due to the tightening of closure restrictions to confront the outbreak of the pandemic, and the higher the share price, the higher the hopes of investors and the challenges facing the company to achieve results that flow through these aspirations, and perhaps here lies the dilemma of Brian, the founder of the company p>
It should be noted that the company suspended the initial public offering earlier in the year when the travel industry almost stopped, and laid off a quarter of its workforce last May, as the epidemic was a major limitation for airbnb, especially in the first half of the year that followed. It was bleak for the company, and it incurred net losses of $ 916 million until the end of last June, and its revenues fell to $ 1.18 billion, with the decline in demand for rents in tourist places !!
It is also important to refer to the dynamics of management in dealing with reality after the company received the first epidemic shock, as it changed the strategy of the platform that is used to reserve accommodation in 220 countries and regions around the world, and launched local and regional marketing campaigns ...