The Softbank Group sent a statement to WeWork shareholders to inform that it is withdrawing part of a recapitalization agreement from the coworking company. The information was released on Tuesday (17) by the newspaper "The Wallstreet Journal".

According to some sources, the agreement that was included the purchase by SoftBank of US $ 3 billion (about R $ 15 billion) in secondary shares of WeWork. In which, it already belongs to partners of the company. One of the shareholders would be the former president of WeWork, Adam Neumann. The executive would sell $ 970 million in shares as part of the deal with Softbank at the end of last year. It was when the bank demanded the executive's departure to continue with the company's bailout plan.

In the statement sent to shareholders of the North American company, the Japanese investment bank mentioned a series of investigations about WeWork, carried out by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the country's Department of Justice. The American newspaper stressed, however, that the withdrawal from the agreement will not affect the US $ 5 billion contributions that Softbank agreed to make in the shared office company. From this amount, the Japanese bank has already invested US $ 1.5 billion in the American company to maintain its operations.

However, the bank has not yet officially canceled the share purchase agreement. According to the Wallstreet Journal the measure may be a way to try to negotiate with WeWork or to delay investment due to the volatility of global markets, caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Reflections of WeWork's negative results on Softbank's balance sheets

Since the end of last year, Softbank has been the majority shareholder in WeWork. However, the shared office company is facing a series of financial complications that are already reflected in the financial institution's results.

As a consequence, the Japanese investment bank recorded, in the third quarter of last year, the first loss in 14 years.

Between July and September 2019, the company recorded a loss of $ 8.9 billion. One of the main factors that contributed to Softbank's negative result was an expense of more than $ 10 billion with WeWork after a failed initial public offering (IPO)