WeWork to trade from Thursday after BowX merger
Office-space provider WeWork is expected to start trading on the New York Stock Exchange from Thursday after a $9bn merger with special-purpose acquisition company (Spac) BowX Acquisition.
As reported by the Financial Times, WeWork’s $9bn market evalutation is a fraction of the initial $47bn at which was listed before tanking its initial listing in 2019.
Even though chief executive Sandeep Mathrani has recently painted the picture of a company that was getting back on track, over the last five years WeWork the company has lost $5bn, $1.5bn just this year.
The reasons for such continuing losses were not only Covid-related but also involved the company’s co-founder Adam Neumann, who left the company in 2019 after its evaluations plunged and his erratic behaviour was brought into question. Newmann received a $445m settlement in May 2021.
CityAM has previously reported that Mathrani has closed more than 150 sites since the beginning of the pandemic as a way to downsize and cut company losses, but while he told investors the days of downsizing were over, one landlord told the Sunday Times he expected WeWork to continue leaving to avoid unaffordable leases.