WeWork to Start Trading in October, Two Years After IPO Crash

(Bloomberg) -- WeWork Cos. plans to begin trading its shares around Oct. 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 Oct. 19 to vote on the plan, the companies said in a statement. Subject to shareholder approval, the deal will close on or about Oct. 21 and the shares will be listed after that under the ticker WE. 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.

The statement Monday came 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 Group Corp.

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 first reported last week on the delay.

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