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WeWork Cites Progress in Talks With SoftBank and Others for More Financing

Global Flexible Workspace Provider Reaches Out to 30 Financial Institutions, Document Shows

WeWork is in talks with majority shareholder SoftBank and others for new financing. (Getty Images)
WeWork is in talks with majority shareholder SoftBank and others for new financing. (Getty Images)

WeWork is reaching out to stakeholders including majority shareholder SoftBank as well as 30 other financial institutions for additional financing as the global flexible workspace provider seeks to emerge from bankruptcy protection by the end of May.

The New York-based firm that has said it’s in the process of raising new financing is in talks and looks to be close to a deal with its “consenting stakeholders,” according to a 356-page amended disclosure filed Friday in bankruptcy court. The stakeholders include Japanese investment giant SoftBank, a group including asset manager BlackRock, and a third-party investor going by the name of Cupar Grimmond.

“The open points in [WeWork’s] negotiations” for potential new financing “have significantly narrowed in recent days,” the filing said.

WeWork also said it had reached out to seven banks and 23 alternative lenders. Four parties that showed an initial interest began due diligence and signed nondisclosure agreements with WeWork, according to the filing, adding there was no agreement made as of Friday.

WeWork and its advisers are engaging in negotiations “with potential funding parties to achieve the best possible terms” for debtor-in-possession and post-bankruptcy financing, the filing said. As of Friday, WeWork said it is prepared to proceed without debtor-in-possession financing that lets it keep operating in Chapter 11 “if necessary,” it said.

Still, WeWork said “debtor-in-possession financing may be prudent so long as it is available on acceptable terms and will enable [it] to pay all administrative claims in full” and emerge from bankruptcy.

May Need $400 Million

WeWork needs as much as $400 million in fresh money to have a chance of emerging from Chapter 11 “viably,” the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the situation. If WeWork should fall short of securing new financing, it may have to sell itself, the Financial Times reported, adding WeWork’s co-founder Adam Neumann, through his new real estate firm Flow, has made a conditional offer of about $600 million for WeWork.

A WeWork spokesperson declined to comment to CoStar News except to say WeWork is “committed to emerging from Chapter 11 next month as a strong and sustainable company, and that is where our undivided attention lies. Any new financial investment would serve to further strengthen the company as we exit from bankruptcy.”

SoftBank didn’t respond to a request from CoStar News seeking a comment.

In an emailed statement to CoStar News, Flow’s attorney, Alex Spiro, said the firm “and its financial partners are prepared to offer 10% more than any other offer that WeWork has received with a timeline to complete diligence in just two weeks.”

Drain on Cash Reserves

As WeWork seeks to raise new funding, the money-losing company’s cash balance had declined to $89.6 million at the end of February from $113.3 million at the start of the month as operating expenses in February alone were more than the revenue it generated, according a report in a separate court filing from late March.

WeWork filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November after years of signing expensive leases at the cost of profit under Neumann, who co-founded the company in 2010.

WeWork has been busy restructuring lease terms with landlords to lessen its lease burden, which the company has said is its biggest obstacle to turning profitable. WeWork recently said it settled on the fate of some 90% of its about 500 global locations in a move that will help save more than $8 billion, or 40%, in total future rent commitments. WeWork said then it plans to keep at least 300 of them while rejecting another 150 with the fates of some 50 other locations still to be decided.

A panel representing WeWork's unsecured creditors said in March it’s seeking bankruptcy court approval to sue SoftBank, and related parties to help recover hundreds of millions of dollars for landlords and its other unsecured creditors.

WeWork is a tenant in a Virginia building CoStar News publisher CoStar Group acquired earlier this year, making CoStar Group a creditor in the bankruptcy case.