WeWork to list two years following aborted IPO

International co-working and shared office space provider WeWork plans to begin trading its shares around October 21 on the New York Stock Exchange, nearing the end of a years-long journey to the public markets.

Shareholders in a special purpose acquisition company set to acquire WeWork will meet virtually on October 19 to vote on the plan. 

Subject to shareholder approval, the deal will close on or about October 21 and the shares will be listed after that.

The SPAC, BowX Acquisition Corp, currently trades at $9.99, just under the initial listing price and off its high of $13.71 in April after unveiling the merger with the New York-based real estate company.

It comes nearly two years after WeWork called off its previous effort to go public. 

Scrutiny of the company’s proposed valuation and its many apparent conflicts of interest precipitated the withdrawal in 2019. 

It also caused a cascade of events including the ouster of the founding chief executive officer, Adam Neumann, and a bailout of the business by SoftBank.

WeWork and BowX had intended to complete their merger by the end of this month, but the regulatory process pushed the date to next month.

-Bloomberg