WeWork files for bankruptcy in U.S.

BEIJING, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) -- WeWork, the Softbank-backed co-working giant company, on Monday filed for bankruptcy in the United States, in a bid to reconstruct its debt.

The company, which focuses on renting out shared office spaces, reported estimated assets and liabilities ranging from 10 billion U.S. dollars to 50 billion dollars, according to a bankruptcy filing.

Profitability has remained the main issue as WeWork is trapped with its expensive leases and corporate clients cancelling because some employees work from home. Though the company managed to amend some 500 leases, saving about 12.7 billion dollars in fixed lease payments, this was not enough to compensate for the losses from the COVID-19 pandemic, Reuters reported.

Many of WeWork's customers were smaller businesses, which cut their spending to cope with the inflation and hard economic prospects.

WeWork China made a statement on Tuesday, saying it will not participate in the strategic reorganization of WeWork in the United States as it's not a branch or unit of WeWork.