• General
  • April 8, 2020
  • 4 minutes read

Airbnb In Talks To Raise More Debt: Report

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky. Photograph by Kevin Moloney/Fortune, under Creative Commons license Merely days after Airbnb announced it secured $1…

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky.

Photograph by Kevin Moloney/Fortune, under Creative Commons license


Merely days after Airbnb announced it secured $1 billion in new debt and equity funding, a subsequent report from Bloomberg says the company is in discussions to raise up to $1 billion in additional debt. Bloomberg reports Airbnb is also cancelling a previous $1 billion credit facility with several banks for unclear reasons. The company was said to have had as much as $3 billion cash on hand plus the $1 billion debt facility, said to be cancelled, before raising $1 billion in debt and equity funding recently. According to a report from the Wall Street Journal (paywall), the debt funding came with interest rates of between 11% to 12% and gave investors warrants that could be converted into shares in Airbnb at a valuation of $18 billion, far less than a valuation as high as $31 billion that Airbnb had gotten on the private market.

The coronavirus outbreak has severely affected Airbnb’s business, with travel curtailments currently enacted around the globe. Such a situation has surely cost Airbnb a lot of business which doesn’t at all do well to its balance sheet. Such a situation will also likely hinder an initial public offering (IPO) that Airbnb planned to hold this year.

The additional funding Airbnb recently raised is apparently meant to help the company weather through a current business slowdown. Discussions to raise much more could mean the effect of the coronavirus outbreak on Airbnb’s business may even be understated, or that the company is preparing for a worst-case scenario.

Airbnb’s recent $1 billion funding came from Silver Lake Partners and Sixth Street Partners, two investment firms with assets amounting to tens of billions.




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