WeWork, a multinational office rental and coworking space, will be listed on the Nasdaq electronic market, two years after its frustrated jump to the market, after merging with BowX Acquisition, a special purpose purchasing company (SPAC), which will raise the proforma value of the company to 9,000 million dollars (7,645 million euros), the company reported.
The transaction, which has been unanimously approved by the boards of WeWork and BowX, could be completed in the third quarter of 2021 and is estimated to bring WeWork approximately 1.3 billion dollars (1,104 million euros) in cash, allowing the company to finance its growth plans in the future.
The operation will be financed with the 483 million dollars (410 million euros) in cash in trust of BowX, in addition to an investment of 800 million dollars (679 million euros) raised through a fully committed private placement at 10 dollars per share. led by investors such as Insight Partners, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Centaurus Capital, and funds and accounts managed by BlackRock.
After closing, the company is expected to have about $ 1.9 billion (€ 1,613 million) of cash on the balance sheet and an estimated liquidity of $ 2.4 billion (€ 2,038 million), including a credit facility of 550 million dollars (467 million euros) provided by SoftBank Group.
Marcelo Claure and Sandeep Mathrani will continue to lead WeWork as CEO and CEO, respectively, along with the rest of the company’s current leadership team. Following the closing of the deal, Vivek Ranadivé from BowX and Deven Parekh from Insight Partners will join the company’s board of directors.
“WeWork has spent the last year transforming its business while managing and innovating during a historic recession,” stated Sandeep Mathrani, CEO of the company, underscoring that WeWork has a “stronger than ever” value proposition.
In September 2019, WeWork was forced to cancel its IPO indefinitely, shortly after Adam Neumann, the company’s co-founder, decided to step down as CEO.
