WeWork Inc. and its creditors are locked in discussions over who will take the keys to the struggling co-working firm as the end of a debt grace period approaches, Bloomberg News reported. WeWork’s top backers including SoftBank Group Corp. and bondholders including King Street Capital Management are each seeking to take control of the company via a new restructuring after pouring money into the firm, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private. BlackRock Inc. and Brigade Capital Management are also part of the negotiations. WeWork is seeking to finalize the restructuring deal in the coming weeks, and may execute it as part of a bankruptcy filing as soon as November, the people said. Terms of the deal have not been finalized and plans may change. In many restructuring scenarios, discussions center around how much debt a company can support, and therefore which creditors need to swap their debt for equity. SoftBank and the bondholder group have been negotiating how to treat a letter of credit facility SoftBank provided the company in 2020 that has since been amended multiple times, the people said. WeWork may need access to the facility to help support its short-term financing needs.
