WeWork China, the local offshoot of US-based co-working space provider WeWork backed by telecommunications conglomerate SoftBank, was acquired for $200m by growth equity firm Trustbridge Partners yesterday.
The company’s official announcement referred to the deal as a “follow-on investment”, however, TechCrunch noted that the transaction would give Trustbridge a majority stake, while WeWork itself would retain a minority shareholding.
It is unclear whether WeWork China’s other shareholders – SoftBank and the Vision Fund, Hony Capital and Temasek – have sold all of their stock. Michael Jiang, operating partner at Trustbridge, has been appointed acting CEO of WeWork China with immediate effect.
A separate report by Reuters subsequently said the $200m commitment from Trustbridge was in addition to an undisclosed sum it paid to buy the majority stake.
WeWork China runs more than 100 shared office spaces across 12 cities and claims to have more than 65,000 members. Trustbridge said it would look to drive further growth, but a source told TechCrunch there had already been layoffs and “many things” remained uncertain.
SoftBank and its Vision Fund co-led a $500m series B round for WeWork China in 2018 together with Trustbridge, Hony Capital and Temasek. The investment reportedly valued the business at $5bn.
WeWork set up the Chinese operation in 2017, when SoftBank and Hony Capital injected $500m in series A financing that gave them a minority stake.
The news is the latest in the WeWork saga that saw the company go from an IPO filing and a $47bn valuation a year ago to withdrawing its plans amid ridicule from the press and a collapse in valuation, the ousting of founder and CEO Adam Neumann and a $6.6bn loss for SoftBank.
– This article was updated on September 25 to include Reuter’s version of events, which stands in contrast to TechCrunch’s earlier report.
