New York (AFP)

WeWork, the giant of shared offices who has multiplied the disappointments in recent weeks, the resignation of his boss co-founder, has finally postponed his arrival on Wall Street and should launch an austerity cure through thousands of job cuts .

"We have decided to postpone our IPO to focus on our core business, whose fundamentals remain strong," announced new co-directors of the company, Artie Minson and Sebastian Gunningham in a statement.

If they are "more than ever determined to serve" their customers, the homeowners they rent offices from, their employees and their shareholders ", they will again consider the possibility of using the financial markets" in the future ", a rather vague term.

In the meantime, assure the leaders, they "intend to make WeWork work as if it were a listed company".

Even if they do not specify if this implies a total transparency on the finances of the company, these remarks are undoubtedly destined to calm the partners of the company, shaken by the tumult surrounding the company and the apparently disturbing situation of the company. his cash.

Renowned for spending a lot of money to fuel its rapid expansion, the group has still incurred in 2018 a loss of $ 2 billion for a turnover of 1.82 billion.

In a harsh indictment of The We Company, WeWork's parent company, rating agency SP Global Ratings estimated last week that the liquidity situation was "less than adequate".

According to analysts at Alliance Berstein, the company, which had in its coffers $ 2.5 billion at the end of June, should run out of cash in the second quarter of 2020 if nothing was done.

The arrival on Wall Street could have allowed him to raise at least $ 3 billion and to benefit in addition to a line of credit of $ 6 billion from major banks.

By giving up on the stock market, the We Company can no longer count on this money and must slash spending.

- Sale of private plane -

According to a source close to the record, the group plans to remove "thousands" of jobs in the coming weeks.

The We Company will also sell the assets "not part of the core business of the company," added this source to AFP. Over the years, and with the interests of his boss, the group had invested in WeLive co-location, WeGrow education, and the social network Meetup.

The new management will also come back on some luxury expenses incurred by his former boss, Adam Neumann, as his private plane.

Founded in 2010 in New York, the company has rapidly expanded to more than 500 sites spread across 29 countries and, with its 12,500 employees, now serves more than 527,000 members.

But questions have proliferated about its ability to earn money and cope with a global economic slowdown, real estate is often one of the first affected sectors.

Originally planned last week, WeWork's IPO was finally postponed due to a welcome of potential investors.

They wondered about the supposed value of the company, from $ 47 billion in a final round at the beginning of the year, to less than 20 billion in the approach of the arrival on Wall Street .

But the doubts also swamped Mr. Neumann's governance and management methods, as well as his sometimes fanciful behavior and apparent conflicts of interest.

Believing that the focus on his person had become "an important distraction", the latter had decided on September 24 to give up his duties as chief executive officer to keep only the position of non-executive chairman of the board of directors.

His wife has also left the company and Neumann no longer has a majority of voting rights, according to a source familiar with the matter.

© 2019 AFP