- Jefferies Financial Group took another hit from WeWork – this time a $69 million writedown to its stake in WeWork parent We Co – in the quarter ending November 30, the investment bank said in an earnings statement released on Wednesday.
- Previously, Jefferies slashed the estimated value of the stake by $146 million on August 31, more than two weeks before the shared-workspace group shelved its plans to go public.
- The bank had originally invested $9 million in the now-embattled office company.
- In October, Goldman Sachs said it took an $80 million hit from its investment. SoftBank, meanwhile, wrote down $4.6 billion from WeWork, it said in November earnings.
- For more stories about WeWork, click here.
Jefferies Financial Group again cut the value of its small WeWork stake, the investment bank said in an earnings release on Wednesday.
Its merchant banking unit had invested $9 million in the company for a stake that it said was worth $269 million as of May 31.
In September, the bank said it had slashed the estimated value of the stake by $146 million on August 31, more than two weeks before WeWork shelved its plans to go public.
The September adjustment reflected a “significant discount due to uncertainty regarding the timing and pricing of We’s IPO,” CEO Rich Handler and President Brian Friedman said in the third-quarter earnings release. “As the facts at We become clearer, further adjustments may be made in future periods.”
The company did not comment on the latest writedown or offer any additional information in the statement on Wednesday reporting fourth-quarter earnings.
WeWork’s valuation plummeted from $47 billion a year ago to less than $5 billion in November. In September, intense scrutiny of its finances and leadership from investors and the media forced WeWork to remove cofounder Adam Neumann as CEO and scrap its IPO plans.
In September, Jefferies said it had earned $31 million in cash from the $9 million investment in WeWork, and retained a 0.8% stake in the company.
Other investors could follow Jefferies’ lead with further disclosures about their own WeWork writedowns in coming earnings. In October, Goldman Sachs said it took an $80 million hit from its investment. SoftBank, meanwhile, wrote down $4.6 billion from WeWork, it said in November earnings.
The Japanese investor is now trying to right WeWork after the company’s tumultuous autumn.
The Japanese investor’s chief operating officer, Marcelo Claure, took the helm of WeWork as chairman after founder Adam Neumann was ousted. Last month, the company overhauled its compensation plan, cut various non-core businesses, and launched a newspaper ad campaign to restore confidence in its shaken business.
Jefferies reported $196 million in overall net income for the quarter ending November 30.
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