WeWork Rival’s CEO Pledges $667 Million Stake for Bank Loan
(Bloomberg) — IWG Plc Chief Executive Officer Mark Dixon pledged 270 million shares – about 93% of his holding — in the world’s biggest operator of serviced offices as collateral for a loan of undisclosed size from Deutsche Bank AG, according to a regulatory filing.
The pledged stake is valued at almost £530 million ($667 million), based on the company’s closing share price on Thursday, with IWG’s stock rising about 17% since the completion of the deal in December.
A spokeswoman for Frankfurt-based Deutsche Bank and a representative for IWG declined to comment.
The transaction, previously unreported in the media, offers a glimpse at how the rich can leverage their assets for liquidity. It also underscores the contrasting fortunes between IWG and US competitor WeWork Cos., which is currently seeking fresh financing to help it exit bankruptcy.
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Pledging shares isn’t uncommon among the ultra-rich. Elon Musk has used his shares in Tesla Inc. to obtain personal loans, while Oracle Corp. Chairman Larry Ellison has put up the company’s stock to fund a lifestyle that includes trophy properties, America’s Cup teams and the Indian Wells tennis facility in California. WeWork founder Adam Neumann also committed shares to secure a credit line of as much as $500 million from banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co. before he was ousted as CEO and Softbank Group Corp. stepped in to cover that liability.
About 12% of the world’s 500 wealthiest people now have part of their shareholdings pledged in publicly traded businesses, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Dixon, 64, founded the company that became IWG in 1989 after previously working as a baker, burger flipper and encyclopedia seller. His other major investments include MDCV, an owner of vineyards spanning more than 1,000 acres (405 hectares) that aims to become one of Britain’s biggest wine producers this year, according to its website.
Dixon has offloaded more than $300 million of IWG stock in the past decade but repeatedly boosted his stake in the Zug, Switzerland-based company during the pandemic. He currently owns 29% of outstanding shares.
A British native who now lives in Monaco, Dixon still has a fortune of more than $500 million even with the bulk of his stake pledged, according to Bloomberg’s wealth index. He previously committed 26.5 million shares — worth £18.1 million at the time — in IWG’s predecessor, Regus, as collateral for a £7.7 million loan from Merrill Lynch that was repaid in June 2009.
(Updates with IWG response in third paragraph.)
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