#Airbnb hikes IPO price range for potential $42B valuation

Airbnb plans to raise the target price range for its initial public offering this week to potentially give itself a nearly $42 billion valuation, according to reports.

The vacation-rental giant now plans to list its shares for $56 to $60 apiece, up from the range of $44 to $50 that was announced last week, The Wall Street Journal reports.

At the high end of the new range, Airbnb would raise $3.1 billion from its hotly anticipated IPO with a fully diluted valuation of $41.8 billion — more than double the $18 billion price tag it received in a private fundraising round in April as the coronavirus pandemic hammered its business, Reuters reported Sunday.

The company could reportedly announce the new price targets on Monday ahead of its Thursday debut on the Nasdaq stock exchange, where it will trade under the ticker symbol “ABNB.”

Airbnb is forging ahead with its IPO at the end of a whirlwind year. The San Francisco-based firm laid off about 25 percent of its staff in May as the coronavirus crisis battered the travel industry. Its business recovered over the summer as demand for home rentals increased with travelers avoiding hotels during the pandemic.

Airbnb’s listing will come amid a record-setting surge in listing activity — more than $140 billion has been raised so far this year from IPOs on US exchanges, beating the previous record set in 1999 during the dot-com boom, according to the Journal.

With Post wires