Nov 15 (Japan Times) - SoftBank Group Corp. is continuing to push money into one of its biggest investments: WeWork Cos.
The New York-based co-working company signed a $3 billion warrant with SoftBank, WeWork said Tuesday in a discussion of its third-quarter earnings. SoftBank agreed to pay $3 billion to WeWork for the opportunity to buy shares before September 2019 at a price of $110 a share or higher, depending on whether WeWork goes public, is acquired or raises a $1 billion round before that date. No matter the outcome, the deal would give WeWork a value of at least $42 billion, according to the company.
SoftBank is by far the biggest investor in WeWork, which was founded in 2010 and runs shared office spaces around the world. WeWork raised $1 billion from SoftBank in August in the form of a convertible note, which would convert to equity at varying share prices depending on the circumstances of WeWork’s next funding round. The warrant, which comes from SoftBank itself and not its Vision Fund, doesn’t affect the previous convertible note. WeWork’s most recent funding round, in which SoftBank invested about $4.4 billion in the company last year, valued the company at $20 billion, though in June a SoftBank executive said the company was raising money at a $35 billion valuation.
