Softbank forced to pay $1.5bn to cover rents as WeWork collapsed

SoftBank had to pay another $1.5bn (£1.2bn) related to its backing of WeWork days before the office-sharing company filed for bankruptcy. The payment was made to banks including Goldman Sachs after SoftBank offered guarantees that helped WeWork secure a “letter of credit” from the lenders in 2019, bankruptcy filings show. SoftBank paid the banks $1.5bn on 31 October after WeWork failed to meet interest and rent payments. Most of the letters of credit remain outstanding, with roughly $809m of the $1.5bn SoftBank wired last week being used to cover payment requests from landlords that have not yet been made. The Japanese group will have a chance to recover a portion of its losses as it converts some of its existing debt into equity in the reorganised company. It takes the Japanese technology investor’s commitments to WeWork to more than $16bn since 2017. The FT (£)The Times (£)The Guardian