Photo courtesy of WeWork
WeWork’s parent company gave investors the most detailed look yet at its finances Wednesday, revealing breakneck growth on the back of massive losses as the office-sharing company prepares for a highly anticipated debut on the stock market.
Founded as a co-working space in Manhattan in 2010, WeWork has grown to become among the biggest corporate landlords in some cities, including Boston. It now has 527,000 members in 111 cities worldwide, according to the regulatory filing by parent firm, The We Company. That’s nearly double the 268,000 members it had in the prior-year period.
WeWork occupies 1.2 million square feet at 12 locations in the area, leased on a long-term basis from tower owners and subleased on a shorter-term basis to companies small and large. It has also been scouting for spaces to fit its new “Headquarters By WeWork” model. However, the size of its local footprint has raised concerns about how it might impact the city office market in any eventual recession.
“In our recent impact report, we estimate that 49 percent of WeWork members in Boston said that WeWork has helped their company accelerate its growth,” Dave McLaughlin, WeWork’s general manager for the Tri-State, Northeast and Mid-Atlantic areas, said in a statement following the company’s recent lease of 117,000 square feet at a downtown tower. “As we open more locations downtown, we’re creating a concentrated and powerful support system for our community, providing more opportunity for the type of collaboration and connection needed to succeed.”
WeWork, whose initial public offering is expected in September, lost $1.61 billion in 2018 while bringing in $1.82 billion in revenue. Its latest filing showed the company on track for another year of impressive growth, having generated $1.54 billion in the first half of 2019. But it also lost $689.7 million in that same period.
WeWork mostly makes money by renting buildings and dividing them into trendy office spaces that it sublets to members. But the company has branched out widely, from acquiring a marketing software company to launching a business-focused school for children and buying a large stake in a wave pool company.
WeWork began by renting office space to freelancers and startups, but a growing part of its customer base are major corporations, which are betting on the model as an efficient way to enter new markets and bring employees closer to clients.
About 40 percent of WeWork memberships came from companies with 500 or more employees in the second quarter of 2019, up from 30 percent at the same time last year. Those so-called “enterprise memberships” are valuable to WeWork because they typically sign up for longer-term commitments.
In its plans to go public, WeWork outlined a number of risks. It warned that because it has been spending so heavily to grow its business, the company may be unable to achieve profitability. WeWork said it expects to expand aggressively in its existing cities and launch in up to 169 additional cities.
Other risks have to do with its unconventional CEO and co-founder, Adam Neumann, who stirred controversy with his investments in real estate entities that lease to WeWork, setting up potential conflicts of interests.
Also, Neumann has no employment contract with his company and if he ends up leaving his post as CEO, it could hurt the business because he has been critical to setting the company’s vision.
The company further warned investors that Neumann gave media interviews earlier this year that potentially violated Securities and Exchange Commission protocols about respecting a “quiet period” ahead of IPOs. WeWork had filed confidentially for an IPO in December 2018.
WeWork indicated that it’s organizing its shares in such a way that Neumann will control a majority of the voting power, giving him the ability to dictate the outcome of major decisions.
Benchmark, J.P Morgan and Softbank also were listed as major stockholders that own more than 5 percent of the company, along with WE Holdings, which is also controlled by Neumann.
An Israeli immigrant who partly grew up on a collective farm called a kibbutz, Neumann has tried to position WeWork as a trend-setter for sustainability, including banning meat at employee events.
WeWork said Neumann and his wife Rebekah agreed to contribute at least $1 billion to charity by the 10-year anniversary of the IPO, and if that contribution is not met, Neumann’s shares would lose some of their voting power.
