Hotel101 in Weak IPO, Extends Travel SPAC Slump

Hotel101 plans to operate 1 million rooms across 100 countries, which seems ambitious for a company that just saw its market cap get cut by two-thirds on day one of public trading. But hey, dream big.

Hospitality company Hotel101 went public on the Nasdaq stock exchange but saw weak demand from public investors as it debuted under the symbol HBNB.

Late last month, the Filipino firm Hotel101 received approval to go public through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company, JVSPAC. Yet individual investors fled, with JVSPAC shares tumbling over 60%, from $9.75 on June 24 to about $3.50 before the merger.

Hotel101 debuted at $3.64 and closed nearly 10% below that, at $3.28.

The IPO prospectus had estimated that the company's "deemed equity value at closing" would be $2.3 billion, assuming a share price of $10. Howev