The merger of shared-office provider WeWork with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) has been described as a “huge milestone”, according to the company’s general manager for the Middle East, Riad Thoumas.
The announcement of the planned merger with BowX Acquisition, which was made towards the end of last month, values WeWork in the region of $9 billion, just two years after the company was valued at $47 billion in a private round of financing from SoftBank Group.
Thoumas told Arabian Business: “It’s the result of a lot of effort done throughout the past year. Definitely it’s a huge milestone for us.”
The transaction will provide WeWork with approximately $1.3 billion of cash which will enable the company to fund its growth plans into the future.
WeWork, which recorded revenues of $3.2 billion (excluding China) in 2020, operates in 851 locations in 152 cities, totalling more than 1 million workstations. Enterprise companies now make up more than 50 percent of WeWork’s memberships, up from just 10 percent in 2015.
The company currently has facilities in Hub 71 in Abu Dhabi, which was opened in January last year; and at One Central at Dubai World Trade Centre, which opened its doors in March 2020.
Thoumas said: “That was a tough period, we were in lockdown, but it turned out to be a positive thing because the pandemic accelerated flexible work spaces. It super-charged our industry.
“We’re here, we’re doing well, we have healthy buildings, we’re sitting at a high occupancy. We’re seeing the demand increasing. We’re seeing more and more traction, not only from small and medium business and start-ups, but post-pandemic I would say the biggest number of enquiries are coming from large corporates, 500-plus employees. This is the biggest shift we have seen post-Covid.
“They want to save on capex, nobody wants to invest any more in fit-out, construction, dealing with lawyers, dealing with general contractors. They want to move from their under-utilised space because large corporates tend to have large spaces which they’re not using because at least half of their employees are working from home.”
Riad Thoumas, managing director of WeWork Middle East
According to recent global reports from JLL, ‘Shaping the Future of Work for a Better World’ and ‘Shaping Human Experience’, 70 percent of office workers believe the office environment is more conducive to connecting with teammates to solve complex issues, manage direct reports and connect with leadership; and 74 percent of employees agree that having the ability to go to the office remains fundamental.
However, 66 percent expect to be able to work from different locations post-crisis – employees are requesting a safe, productive and seamless experience that satisfies their personal and professional needs.
“For us, the future of work is going to be a hybrid working, of remote working but also in person. Social distancing will have to be a big component of the new norm and businesses of all sizes, and mainly enterprise are looking to WeWork or to flexible workspaces as a solution to support that density challenges,” said Thoumas.
He added: “We’re seeing demand in the UAE so we believe we can increase our presence. But we’re also looking to other markets within the region. We’re strong believers that this is the future of workspace.”
WeWork recently announced that it is accepting payment in select cryptocurrencies in the US, following a partnership agreement with BitPay and Coinbase.
Thoumas said: “The idea was, we’ve launched it in the US. We’ve had our first member paying in cryptocurrency. We’re still waiting for more details, but it will roll over to other markets.”
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