WeWork has made its IPO paperwork public, putting the co-working giant on track to begin trading as soon as next month. The company publicly filed documents for its highly-awaited market debut with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Wednesday morning.
Founded in 2010 by Miguel McKelvey and Adam Neumann, WeWork rents out innovative workspaces to tech firms, entrepreneurs, and startups. The company currently has about 527,000 members in 528 locations across 29 countries. As of June this year, more than 50% of WeWork’s members were outside the United States.
“Our space-as-a-service offering significantly reduces the complexity of leasing real estate to a simplified membership model, while delivering a premium experience to our members at a lower price relative to traditional alternatives and moving fixed lease costs to variable costs for our members. Our membership model is transforming the way individuals and organizations consume commercial real estate,” WeWork said in the regulatory filing.
The S-1 document provides a more comprehensive assessment of the New York-based company’s financial condition. It shows that WeWork has a history of rising losses and quick revenue growth.
According to its regulatory filing, the co-working giant had a net loss of $689.7 million and $1.54 billion in revenue during the six months to June 2019, versus a net loss of $628.1 million and revenue of $763.8 million in the same period last year. Meanwhile, total expenses swelled to $2.9 billion from $1.44 billion.
WeWork has been operating on an aggressive expansion strategy and hasn’t said when it expects to achieve profitability.
“As we continue to focus on growing our global platform, certain metrics may be impacted by the geographic mix of our locations and the costs associated with establishing stabilized occupancy levels. For example, average revenue per WeWork membership has declined, and we expect it to continue to decline, as we expand internationally into lower-priced markets,” the company said.
WeWork was valued at $47 billion after a private fundraising round in January, which was led by Japanese telecom conglomerate Softbank. Other notable investors with a stake in the startup include JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM), Benchmark, and We Holdings LLC.
WeWork’s IPO is expected to be second-largest IPO this year after ride-sharing giant Uber (NYSE: UBER) went public in May. Multiple media reports say the company plans to list in September, though that timing could nonetheless slip.
Executives at the company have been aiming to list at a time when the U.S. stock market is not in turmoil.The company plans to list its shares under “WE” ticker symbol, but didn’t reveal the stock exchange where they will be traded.
