WeWork India receives SEBI approval for IPO
The IPO for WeWork India, a co-working space provider, will be a pure offer for sale of 43.75 million shares; the company will not receive any proceeds from the issue.
WeWork India Management Ltd has secured regulatory approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for its initial public offering (IPO).
The offering comprises an offer for sale (OFS) of up to 43.75 million equity shares by existing shareholders. Promoter Embassy Buildcon will sell up to 33.46 million shares, and investor 1 Ariel Way Tenant will offload up to 10.30 million shares, according to the draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) filed in February.
Considering the IPO is a pure OFS, the company will not receive any proceeds from the offering. In its draft papers, it cited that the objective of the offer is to obtain the benefits of listing its equity shares on the stock exchanges.
The company is backed by real estate developer Embassy Group and serves enterprise clients including AWS, JP Morgan, and Grant Thornton.
The approval comes months after a proposed Rs 1,200-crore secondary transaction involving WeWork Inc. and Embassy Group to sell a combined 40% stake in WeWork India fell through, according to media reports. The deal, which had received approval from the Competition Commission of India, would have seen WeWork Inc. exit its 27% holding, with Embassy divesting 13%.
JM Financial, ICICI Securities, Jefferies India, Kotak Mahindra Capital, and 360 ONE WAM are managing the issue.
Launched in 2017, WeWork India is a provider of premium flexible workspaces and operates as the exclusive licensee of the global WeWork brand in India. As of September 30, 2024, its portfolio included 59 operational centres with over 94,000 desks and 6.48 million sq ft of leasable area.
In April this year, another coworking firm IndiQube Spaces secured approval from the market regulator to raise Rs 850 crore through an IPO. The Bengaluru-based managed workplace solutions company had filed its DRHP in December last year. It plans to raise Rs 750 crore through a fresh issue of equity shares and Rs 100 crore via OFS.
(The story was updated with additional information.)
Edited by Swetha Kannan