Barry Sternlicht, Chairman and CEO of Starwood Capital Group said, “The commercial real estate industry has experienced a seismic shift and the future of work is now being redefined in real time. WeWork is the leader in flexible space, with a globally recognized brand.”
Deven Parekh, Managing Director at Insight Partners, said, “With COVID accelerating the adoption of flexible workspace around the globe, WeWork is uniquely positioned to meet rising demand in a dynamic market. As leaders in growth investing across technology and software, we are excited to bring our decades of experience to further accelerate WeWork’s expanding digital platform.”
Marcelo Claure and Sandeep Mathrani will continue to lead WeWork as Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, respectively, along with the rest of the company’s highly experienced leadership team. Following the closing, Vivek Ranadivé of BowX and Deven Parekh of Insight Partners will join the company’s Board of Directors.
A Transformed WeWork
Since 2019, WeWork has made significant progress towards transforming its business through a strategic plan that included robust expense management efforts, exits of non-core businesses, and material portfolio optimization, which contributed to a dramatically improved cost structure.
Over the course of 2020, WeWork improved its free cash flow by $1.6 billion through cost cutting measures including reducing SG&A expenses by $1.1 billion and trimming building operating expenses by $400 million. The company also exited all of its non-core ventures and streamlined headcount by 67% from its peak in September 2019. Today, WeWork is a more focused company built around a core flexible space business that is poised for substantial growth.
As of December 2020, the company successfully exited 106 pre-open or underperforming locations and executed over 100 lease amendments for rent reductions, deferrals, or tenant improvement allowances resulting in an estimated $4.0 billion reduction in future lease payments. After its strategic asset exits, WeWork retains an unmatched scale and value proposition worldwide thanks to its 851 locations in 152 cities, totaling more than one million workstations. Enterprise companies now make up more than 50% of WeWork’s memberships, up from just 10% in 2015. Only 10% of WeWork’s members have month-to-month commitments, while more than 50% have commitments longer than 12 months, contributing to an average full commitment term of well over 15 months.
As witnessed through the COVID-19 pandemic, WeWork’s strong business model has demonstrated resilience in an unprecedented downturn. 2020 revenue, excluding China, was $3.2 billion, which is flat compared to 2019, even after exiting non-core businesses and despite significant headwinds from COVID-19.
Amidst its transformation, WeWork has continued to redefine the flexible workplace market by digitizing its global physical network. As traditional landlords look to embrace the flexible model that WeWork pioneered and the market demands, the company will be well positioned to offer landlords an asset light technology platform for managing and orchestrating flexible space.
Going forward, WeWork intends to expand beyond its core business through its On Demand, All Access, and Platform offerings, enabling users to choose from their WeWork mobile app when, where, and how they work. Demand from landlords and members remains strong, and today WeWork has a $4.0 billion total sales pipeline and an estimated $1.5 billion in committed 2021 revenue.
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