WeWork South Africa has announced that it is not affected by the bankruptcy of WeWork US operations. In fact, it says that it is looking to expand its operations. There are currently three WeWork offices in South Africa – one in Cape Town and two in Johannesburg.
Founded in 2010 by Adam Nuemann and Miguel McKelvey, WeWork is a provider of co-working spaces, including physical and virtual shared spaces. Once valued at $47 billion, the co-working space company announced on Monday that it’s filing for bankruptcy in both the US and Canada.
WeWork announced that “it has commenced a comprehensive reorganization to strengthen its capital structure and financial performance and best position the Company for future success. The Company maintains the strong support of its key financial stakeholders and has entered into a Restructuring Support Agreement (“RSA”) with holders representing approximately 92% of its secured notes to drastically reduce the Company’s existing funded debt and expedite the restructuring process. During this period, WeWork will further rationalize its commercial office lease portfolio while focusing on business continuity and delivering best-in-class services to its members, as global operations are expected to continue as usual.”
“To successfully achieve its goals, WeWork Inc. and certain of its entities filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, and intend to file recognition proceedings in Canada under Part IV of the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (the “CCAA Recognition Proceedings”).”
It also stated that WeWork’s locations outside of the U.S. and Canada are not part of this process and that WeWork’s franchisees around the world will not be affected by the bankruptcy proceedings.
Owners of WeWork South Africa, Andrew Robinson and Stefano Migliore, said in the statement posted on “X” that it is 100% independently owned by SiSebenza and that as an independent company, it is not part of the strategic re-organisation process and there will be no impact on its members, vendors, employees and real estate partners.
The company says its focus is on expanding the WeWork brand into Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius and Nigeria, and on growing its presence in South Africa. WeWork opened its first location in South Africa location in 2019 at WeWork The Link in Rosebank, Johannesburg.
