Skift Take
This was the year of the travel IPO with 10 market debuts. But a minimum of 10 more travel business are most likely to go public in 2022. Investors, regardless of disappointing Covid obstacles, continue to bet on the long-lasting strength of the travel industry.
Sean O’Neill
This year set a record for travel business going public or revealing they will go public, setting up 2022 to be another banner year, too.
In 2021, a half-dozen business had conventional IPOs. In the following chart, “cash to stabilize sheet” is our estimate of just how much money went to the company after shareholders, financial obligations, and other products were paid.
Another pattern in 2021 was a surge in the popularity of special function acquisition business (SPACs). Skift started the year notifying readers to what these blank-check business were and why they would be popular in 2021.
3 travel companies combined with blank check business and went public this year.
The froth represented a wider boom in initial public offerings. This year, more than 300 operating business have gone public in a traditional IPO or direct listing in the U.S. markets, without a doubt one of the most of any year since 2000, said Jay Ritter, a teacher of finance at the University of Florida who studies IPOs.
“Close to 200 have actually gone public by merging with a SPAC,” Ritter said. “Integrating these numbers, the variety of operating company brand-new listings is the greatest of any year given that 1996.”
In the travel sector especially, seven companies revealed that they had accepted merge with blank check business to go public. However several of the companies delayed their market debuts apparently because of the late-year surprise of the Omicron variant. For example, Wynn Resorts deserted in November its plans to take its online video gaming platform public through a SPAC at a $3.2 billion assessment.
Here are the seven SPAC mergers revealed in 2021 that are now most likely to cause market debuts in 2022. The very first most likely to come is Sonder, which submitted files on December 23 suggesting it may go public as soon as January. The following table’s “anticipated cash to balance sheet” represents quotes about gross proceeds anticipated to stick with the business and go through alter.
A couple of travel business filed with regulators in 2021 to go public via standard initial public offerings. These market launches are expected in 2022.
Skift is seeing a handful of other travel-sector business for possible going publics in 2022.
Virgin Atlantic has actually reportedly remained in speak to go public.
The same holds true of Korean travel tech unicorn Yanolja, as Skift has actually reported.
A handful of travel-and-transportation-focused special purpose acquisition business continue to hunt for companies to merge with. Accor’s SPAC listing is targeting organizations in lifestyle, leisure, and nearby sectors. (See: “Accor Might Usage SPAC to Own Realty While Still Trumpeting Asset-Light Technique.”)
Traveloka, Indonesia’s travel unicorn, had on-again-off-again talk with go public through a blank check business in 2021. An initial public offering of the online travel bureau in 2022 seems rather possible.
Getaround, a car-sharing start-up and Turo rival, was apparently in speak with go public through a merger with SPAC, Elevation Acquisition Corp., run by corporate travel agency Teplis Travel CEO Gary Teplis.
BlaBlaCar, a French bus and carpooling network that raised $115 million (EUR97 million) in fresh financial investment in 2021, appears like a prime prospect to go public as quickly as 2022.
GetYourGuide, an online travel bureau for tours and activities, is another possible prospect for going public.
In other words, 2022 might be a bonanza for investors banking on the travel sector.