After Chapter 11, WeWork returns to generating cash and revises growth strategy

After a pandemic that forced WeWork to reduce 20% of its portfolio worldwide, the company records an average occupancy of 80% globally in 2026, just 5% of sweet spotthe level considered perfect for the business, which needs a certain flexibility in positions.

The recovery came after a request for judicial recovery by Chapter 11 of the United States Court in November 2023, reporting almost US$19 billion in debt at the time. The crisis was the result of the ‘coup’ taken by the company during the pandemic, which closed offices around the world and imposed Home Office policies.

The restructuring process – and the – made WeWork seek agreements with landlords (property owners) to withdraw from more than 200 standard B buildings around the world. “Today, we are in buildings that fit with our value proposition, standard A buildings,” said Claudio Hidalgo, vice president of WeWork in America, in an exclusive interview with InfoMoney.

The most sensitive mistake made by the group was the unbridled expansion of its portfolio and operations, which ended up becoming a greater focus than the profitability of each office. “Today there is no building supporting the other. Everyone is profitable”, said Diego Kexel, WeWork’s general manager for Latin America.

Despite the scorched earth left by the pandemic – when the occupancy rate fell from 80% in 2019 to around 50% in 2020, 60% in 2021, and 75% in 2022 – the company was able to understand in advance that demand for offices would return. “We are in 31 countries, in more than 600 buildings globally. COVID first hit Asia and then the other continents. So there was tracking. We had information about what was happening in Asia six months before. The phases we went through in Brazil are the same as those previously experienced in Europe and Asia, a semester later”, said Hidalgo.

In a recent interview with the New York Post, Peter Greenspan, global head of Real Estate at WeWork stated that the company had a global revenue of US$2.3 billion.

Without revealing the exact figure generated in Latin America last year, WeWork only confirmed to the report a 20% increase in revenue in the region compared to 2024.

“What I can say is that today we have a solid and profitable operation, which generates cash – something that had never happened before,” said Hidalgo.

Expansion plans?

According to the company, its Latin American arm operated independently from WeWork in the US when the judicial recovery began, which gave it a more comfortable position in terms of debt. “The operation in Latin America has no debt”, said the company in a note sent to the report, and added: “Today the region is integrated into the global structure of WeWork, which allows us to maintain a solid financial position to continue growing in the region”.

Contrary to what was predicted immediately after the pandemic – when the home office seemed like it was here to stay – the b2b real estate sector is exploding, with vacancy rates for high-end commercial buildings reaching historic lows. In São Paulo, the vacancy rate fell from almost 20% at the end of 2024 to 13%, according to surveys by JLL and Binswanger Brazil recently published in the press.

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And the trend is not limited to Brazil, according to internal data from WeWork offices. “The occupancy of our positions in Latin America is also at an average of 80%, considering all the markets in which we operate besides Brazil: Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Peru and Argentina”, explains Diego Kexel, general manager of WeWork for Latin America.

Still, there are no plans to expand the company’s portfolio, which will focus on maintaining the current solid occupancy level until at least 2028.

“If we expand to new locations, occupancy starts at zero and then it takes time for it to grow. If an opportunity arises where a company needs a building, we can design it and manage it, but there needs to be a client and an owner of the property. We will not return to class B. We will grow along this path, but not at the speed we grew before, because it was not healthy and we ended up in Chapter 11. We will not repeat this path,” said Hidalgo.

Not Brazil

WeWork’s Brazilian operation is described as stable and profitable by Beatriz Kawakami, the company’s head of Sales in Brazil. After the period of global turbulence and the need to “clear the house”, the last two years were dedicated to ensuring “healthy prices, financial health and stability” in existing buildings.

The result is a very consolidated brand perception, especially in São Paulo, where organic demand dominates the generation of new contracts. In smaller markets, such as BH and Porto Alegre, Kawakami says that there is still active work to change perception, due to the automatic association with coworking and the “certain prejudice” linked to this model.

“To unlock these markets, the strategy has been to deepen the relationship with local brokers and brokers, in addition to investing in brand awareness”, he stated.

Here, expansion plans seem a little less distant, but still lukewarm. “We are visiting some spaces to understand how the market is doing, which are the best places, which are the best states and cities to start with.”