WeWork – How Far Can It Flex?

It's not the first occasion that a major serviced office provider has landed in a corporate restructuring but it may be the most high-profile. The current evolving situation follows on from such previous fireworks as the failed IPO, a corporate reorganisation that swapped a US headco "inc." for an "LLC" (prompting litigation at the end of the last decade), and continuing market uncertainty as to the robustness of the brand.

Our experience for landlords in managing matters involving WeWork goes back to the era of the inc./LLC swap. Typically, WeWork appears to operate on the basis of an SPV tenant with a US senior guarantor whose liability is then capped. This is the case even though WeWork leases have been granted with terms measured in decades. There is now the potentially complex interaction of US and UK insolvency proceedings, and landlords considering their remedies in circumstances where they may (or may not) have the right to terminate their leases to WeWork