WeWork offices in Tysons, Virginia. (Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM)Skadden, Simpson Thacher Advise on Long-Awaited WeWork IPO
The shared workspace giant reported a loss of $1.62 billion between 2016 and 2018 as part of the filing.
August 14, 2019 at 03:30 PM
3 minute read
The We Company, WeWork’s parent company, finally took the IPO plunge Wednesday, in the process reporting 2016 to 2018 revenue of $1.82 billion and losses of $1.62 billion. The company would be traded under the symbol “We.”
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom advised the co-working pioneer and real estate giant on its filing, with New York capital markets partner Ryan Dzierniejko heading a team that included partners Graham Robinson and Laura Knoll in Boston.
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett partners John Ericson and Roxane Reardon in Boston advised an underwriter group that includes JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Barclays Capital, Citigroup Global Markets, Credit Suisse Securities (USA), HSBC Securities (USA), UBS Securities and Wells Fargo Securities.
Skadden has advised WeWork in the past, notably representing it during Japanese telecommunications company SoftBank’s $4.4 billion capital infusion in July 2017.
WeWork, which has been valued as high as $47 billion in the private market, has seen massive revenue growth over the past several years. During the first half of 2019 the company reported revenue of $1.54 billion, almost outpacing their total revenue from the prior two years. But the losses have mounted as well as the company attempts to rapidly expand. It reported losses in the first half of 2019 of $689.7 million.
The company’s Wednesday filing revealed some interesting numbers around its expansion. According to the filing, WeWork now has 528 locations in 111 cities around the world with a total membership of over half a million.
The growth hasn’t only been geographical. The We Company umbrella has launched several different subsidiary companies as well, ranging from “wellness experience” company Rise by We to WeGrow elementary schools to the dorm-like WeLive communal living facilities.
The IPO underwriter group is kicking in up to $6 billion in the planned offering. Sources told The Wall Street Journal that the banks are asking We Company to raise $4 billion from the public equity market to continue to fund its growth.
The company, based in New York, is styled after Silicon Valley tech startups despite its significant real estate focus. Like many tech upstarts, it has been wracked with culture issues as it has grown, ranging from accusations of a toxic culture to sexual harassment to ageism.
Nonetheless, the company is shooting for a September debut, hoping to capitalize on markets that are near record highs and that global indicators say might not stay there.
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