By Olivia Carville and Crystal Tse
Airbnb Inc. said it has filed to go public in a long-awaited listing as the company emerges from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
The San Francisco-based company said Wednesday in a statement that it submitted its filing for an initial public offering confidentially to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The size and price range for the offering haven’t been set yet, the company said.
Airbnb remains one of the most highly anticipated stock listings of this year. Chief Executive Officer Brian Chesky had originally intended to initiate the listing process with the SEC on March 31. That was before Covid-19 closed borders, grounded flights to a halt and left the company with more than $1 billion in cancellations. With the markets in turmoil, plans were put on hold.
The comeback for travel following the first peak of the pandemic was faster than expected, though, helping keep Airbnb’s plans for a public market debut moving ahead.
The company began seeing signs of recovery in June, with bookings down only 30% for the month in 2019, people familiar with the matter have said. That compared with a 70% decline in May from a year earlier.
