WeWork Inc. said there’s “substantial doubt” about its ability to continue operating, citing sustained losses and canceled memberships to its office spaces. Its shares declined more than 14% in extended trading.
(Bloomberg) — WeWork Inc. said there’s “substantial doubt” about its ability to continue operating, citing sustained losses and canceled memberships to its office spaces. Its shares declined more than 14% in extended trading.
The co-working company will focus over the next 12 months on reducing rental costs, negotiating more favorable leases, increasing revenue and raising capital, WeWork said in a statement Tuesday.
The warning comes mere months after WeWork struck a deal with some of its biggest creditors and SoftBank to cut its debt load by around $1.5 billion and extend other maturities. Its bonds trade at deeply distressed levels. The company’s 7.875% unsecured notes due 2025 last changed hands for 33.5 cents on the dollar, according to data from Trace.
WeWork’s office locations, which emptied out during the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic, were showing slow progress toward filling back up over the last year. But the recovery appears so far to be unsustainable. WeWork said occupancy dropped in the second quarter compared to the previous quarter.
The New York-based company has also been weathering a change in leadership, too. Sandeep Mathrani, who took over as chief executive officer in early 2020, left in May to become a partner at private equity firm Sycamore Partners. WeWork currently has an interim CEO.
Mathrani had taken over soon after co-founder and former CEO Adam Neumann was ousted for failing to take the high-flying startup public in 2019. On Tuesday, WeWork said three of its independent board members are being replaced by four new board members.
–With assistance from Claire Boston.
(Updates with shares and bond trading starting in the first paragraph.)
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