Days after announcing a $1 billion debt+equity round, Airbnb is announcing yet another fundraise today. The raise, $1 billion again, is completely on the debt side of things this time, in the form of a syndicated term loan from institutional investors. Th $1 Billion debt top up over a $1 billion equity round, comes at a time when the company has taken a major hit along with the rest of the travel industry due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The company says that this freshly acquired capital will back Airbnb’s ability to invest in the company and a host of guests in over 220 countries and regions worldwide.
The boost in its financial cushions is expected to enable the home-sharing leader to pay bills while the global coronavirus pandemic diminishes travel demand and the prospect of an initial public offering. “All the actions we have taken over the last several weeks assure that Airbnb will emerge from the storm of the pandemic even stronger, regardless of how long the storm lasts” said CEO, co-founder and head of community Brian Chesky.
This freshly raised capital flows from a first-lien debt, which has priority on the company’s assets in case of default. This means creditors will be paid first if a default occurs. The five year loan comes with a rate of 750 basis points over the Libor Benchmark. Owing to a slight discount to the loan’s par value, investors earn a rate of about 12%. The deal does not include any warrants or equity components.
While names of investors weren’t officially announced, a Reuters report cites Silver Lake, which is one of the two investors from the debt deal last week, as a major investor this time as well. The list of other participants includes Apollo Global Management, Sixth Street Partners, Oaktree Capital Management and Owl Rock while advisors for this new deal were Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.
In a deal closed last week, Airbnb had raised $1 billion in debt and equity from Silver Lake and Sixth Street Partners but came with a steep price tag: an interest rate of 10% plus libor. Those investors will also get warrants that can be converted into shares with a valuation of $18 billion for the San-Francisco based company, a drop of almost half since 2017.
The home-sharing marketplace had planned to go public this year but the coronavirus pandemic has made an IPO very unlikely, at least within this year. As travel entirely ground to a halt, the company has consequently faced escalating losses. The additional funds could help the company through the economic crisis and even make acquisitions without going public.
