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SoftBank Pumping In Another $1.1B Into WeWork To Help Offset Pandemic Impact: FT

SoftBank Group Corp (OTC: SFTBY) is lending $1.1 billion to WeWork to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on its business, the Financial Times reported Thursday.

What Happened

The financing is in addition to the $10 billion the Japanese conglomerate has pumped into the beleaguered office-leasing company, according to an internal memo seen by the Financial Times.

The funds are in the form of senior secured debt and have not yet been tapped, two people familiar with the matter told the Financial Times. The office-space company has 12 months to draw the loan, the sources revealed.

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Why It Matters

The loan amount matches the $1.1 billion debt financing figure that was predicated on the Japanese company’s agreement to purchase billion of WeWork’s shares.

WeWork Chief Financial Officer Kimberly Ross told employees in the memo that the funds would help WeWork deal with large cash outflows in the second quarter, the Financial Times reported.

The memo disclosed that WeWork spent $671 million during the quarter ended June, 40% higher than the preceding quarter. The figure included $116 million in restructuring costs.

The company also revealed its sales fell by a fifth, to $882 million, and memberships declined 12% to 612,000 in Q2.

SoftBank posted a $12 billion profit in its latest quarter earlier this week, driven by fellow WeWork Vision Fund investments, such as Uber Technologies Inc (NYSE: UBER) and Slack Technologies Inc (NYSE: WORK).

Price Action

SoftBank OTC shares closed nearly 1.8% higher at $30.19 on Thursday.

Photo courtesy: Ajay Suresh via Wikimedia

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