Airbnb ‘reinventing’ itself with £4.8bn share buyback as it looks to go ‘far beyond travel’
Airbnb is looking at expanding beyond its core services and revealed a $6bn share buyback scheme, as it reported a mixed bag of fourth quarter results.
The home rental platform is planning to “reinvent” itself and push into new areas of business as it invests in new markets including Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands.
“Airbnb is at an inflection point”, the company told shareholders on Tuesday. “We spent the past three years
perfecting our core service, and now we’re ready to embark on our next chapter,” it added.
Airbnb shares jumped nearly seven per cent in after-hours trading and have risen around 21 per cent over the past year.
Chief executive Brian Chesky told analysts that the company could go “far beyond travel” in the coming years but it will initially start with its core travel business.
The company, popular with holidaymakers, also said its board has approved a share buyback programme of up to $6bn (£4.8bn).
During 2023, its total share repurchases amounted to $2.25bn. Since Airbnb’s first share buyback scheme in 2022, it has bought $3.75bn worth of its stock.
“The repurchase program continues to be executed as part of our broader capital allocation strategy
which prioritizes investments in organic growth, strategic acquisitions where relevant, and return
of capital to shareholders, in that order,” the company said.
“Our strong balance sheet and meaningful cash flow generation provides us the capital to do all three.”
Airbnb reported revenue of $2.2bn in its fourth quarter – a rise of 17 per cent from the previous year and ahead of analyst estimates of $2.16bn. It attributed this to strong travel demand and good foreign exchange rates.
But it recorded a net loss of $349m for the final quarter, blaming it on a roughly $1bn one-off tax expense and a diluted loss per share of $0.55 compared to earnings per share (EPS) of $0.48 a year before.