Softbank Again Saves WeWork With Another Recapitalization

For

SoftBank

investors, short-term office-rental company

WeWork

brings up bad memories. WeWork filed to go public in August 2019, but pulled out less than two months later amid uproar over founder and then-CEO Adam Neumann’s behavior. In October 2019, SoftBank supplied $5 billion in financing to WeWork, then wrote down its stake by $8.2 billion two months later. WeWork finally went public in October 2021 via a SPAC merger, losing more than 90% of its value. It trades around $.84.

With help from SoftBank, WeWork has dodged a financial crisis. WeWork is cutting debt below $2.4 billion, from $3.6 billion, and pushing the bulk of its maturities to 2027, from 2025. WeWork gets more than $1 billion of new funding and capital commitments and “cancels or equitizes” $1.5 billion of debt, including $1 billion held by SoftBank, which will be converted into equity, and $690.5 million in unsecured notes converted into debt and equity.