NEW YORK - WeWork owner The We Company has tapped JPMorgan Chase & Co to head an upcoming debt offering, putting the bank in pole position to lead a planned initial public offering later this year, people familiar with the matter said.
WeWork has not officially hired banks for the IPO but the expectation among people involved in the process is that any lender’s role in the debt offering will have a direct impact on its role in the IPO, said the sources, who requested anonymity because the details are private. Leading the WeWork IPO would be a coup for JPMorgan and means it would occupy the lead spot on two of the three largest IPOs of 2019, having led preparations for the Lyft Inc listing in March. Rival Morgan Stanley was the lead bank on the Uber Technologies Inc IPO in May.
WeWork has helped popularize “coworking”, or shared desk-space, with a focus on startups, entrepreneurs and freelancers, and has received significant backing from some of the world’s biggest investors, including Japan’s SoftBank Group.
A little bit of trivia for ya. Adam Neumann, co-founder of Wework is graduate of Baruch College, CUNY, In the heart of the City of New York.