SoftBank, the largest external investor in shared workspace company WeWork, is asking the company to halt its IPO, according to a report in "The Financial Times".
WeWork has been in discussions with Softbank, its other shareholders, and its advisers on how to proceed with the flotation of parent company The We Company. The company has been criticized for its governance, its management culture, and payments to its Israeli co-founder and CEO Adam Neumann.
The company's advisers now estimate its valuation for the purposes of the IPO at $15-20 billion, about half the $47 billion valuation that the company published in January. If it halts the IPO, WeWork will lose some $6 billion that it received in investment from banks such as JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs, which were conditional on the flotation raising a further $3 billion from new investors.
Softbank has invested some $2 billion in WeWork to date.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on September 10, 2019
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