Airbnb looks set to go ahead with its long-awaited IPO on Dec 9th, with the shares to begin trading on Dec 10th. The shares are expected to price at $44-$50 with the listing to raise around $2.5bn. Some 55m shares will be sold with a greenshoe option for 5m more if demand is high. The pricing would indicate a valuation of almost $30bn at the top of the range. 

It comes as DoorDash estimates that its IPO will price shares at $90-95, above the $75-$85 range set out only last week. The shares are expected to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “DASH.” 

November was a particularly strong month for US equities, with the Dow Jones notching its best month since 1987 and the Russell 2000 recording its best-ever month. Demand for equities remains strong but these IPOs will be an important gauge of exactly where investor sentiment lies heading into the Christmas period and the New Year. Big November rallies often leaves December a little soft, with the Santa Rally essentially being pulled forward. If Airbnb or DoorDash fail to fly it might signal some trouble under equity market bonnet. 

Airbnb financials 

The company generate a profit of $219 million in the third quarter of 2020, on $1.34 billion in revenue. This was down fractionally from the $227 million in profit during the same quarter last year, which was its only profitable quarter in 2019, coming on $1.65 billion in revenue. 

However, the onset of lockdowns due to the pandemic made for a very challenging first half of 2020 for Airbnb as it chalked up net losses of $916 million on revenue of $1.18 billion. The company, which plans to list on the Nasdaq under the ticker ABNB, provided detailed customer and revenue figures.

You can read more on Airbnb financials in this post.