Prediction Didn’t hold up
Virwani: WeWork India will hit $1 billion in revenue by 2026
“So, yeah, I think within three years.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Virwani: Real estate developers have failed to replicate the co-working model
“Many developers, you know, even in the country or everywhere else have tried to do this business or replicate the business, and none of them have been successful.”
Assertion Partly supported
Virwani: WeWork India operates at upwards of 20% margins
“You know, as a business hit what is called as like operating leverage, operating efficiencies, which means that we are sufficiently covering all of our costs and also incremental costs that we might have for growth by a decent margin, you know, businesses upwa…”
Insight
Virwani: India's outsourced work shifted from back-office to product R&D
“What we've seen also is that the type of work that is coming to India has changed drastically from back office, tele services, telecalling to now full-fledged R&D, product development sites happening here in itself.”
Assertion Supported
Virwani: Embassy Group represents roughly 20% of WeWork India's portfolio
“Actually, embassy as a landlord would be maybe about 20% of our portfolio.”
Disclosure
Virwani's family invested $150 million of personal capital into WeWork India
“So we've invested almost hundred and fifty million of our own money in this business. And yeah, that's been over the last sort of four or five years.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Virwani: WeWork India faced 500-crore vendor exposure with zero bank balance
“We had an exposure to the market of like nearly four or 500 draws. With no money in our bank at all. And just, you know, our word and our promise that we will make good.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Virwani: Multinational real estate procurement in India takes up to 24 months
“India has always had very low supply of grade A commercial real estate, or, you know, what these large MNCs would end up taking, and the speed at which they can bring on real estate in their system, which means whatever we spoke about You know, which is our se…”
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Virwani: WeWork India's occupancy crashed from 77% to 47% in 45 days
“We saw occupancy, like, what is sold, go from 77% at that point in time, down to 47% in, like, a span of 30 days, or, like, 45 days.”
Assertion Partly supported
Virwani: Banking and media are overtaking IT in Indian enterprise leasing
“Banking and media have started to overtake IT and IT services, at least in this period of time. So we're seeing a lot of, you know, companies like multinational banks and stuff like that come into India, start to grow their footprint.”
Disclosure
Virwani: WeWork India is nearing a $300 million revenue run rate
“You know, we're already sort of, like, gonna be close to about 300 odd million, you know, in terms of run rate, like, very soon.”
Assertion Contradicted
Virwani: Bangalore leads global commercial real estate absorption in recent years
“Bangalore is, is the highest amount of absorption in terms of real estate globally in the last like few years.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Virwani: Coworking will capture 20% of Indian commercial real estate
“We feel that co-working of, you know, the flex workspace industry will become at least 20% of, you know, all commercial real estate in a period of time. Or even if you say, like, at least 20% of all companies workforce will work in a flexible model.”
Assertion Supported
Virwani: WeWork India was WeWork's first global franchise model
“So because of that, we had to finally come to what ended up becoming the first ever franchise model for WeWork, where we said that we will Take the plunge. We will, you know, the money, we will grow the business under the WeWork brand name. And, you know, you …”
Assertion Supported
Virwani: WeWork India Has 44 Locations and Over 70,000 Desks
“Today we have 44 locations, close to about, say, a little over 70,000 or deaths in the country”
Disclosure
Virwani: WeWork India plans to add 20,000 desks annually
“And we'll be adding, you know, about 20,000 desks year over year, which for us is like between 30 to 45%, you know, growth.”
Assertion Supported
Virwani: WeWork India raised $100 million in June 2020 as a lifeline
“In June of 2020, actually right in the middle of the pandemic, we, you know, got that hundred million dollars in funding, which honestly was like a lifeline to the business.”
Assertion Supported
Virwani: WeWork India generates positive cash and needs limited external capital
“Right now, you know, the business doesn't require much external capital. We just completed a little bit of a raise, and we are generating also positive cash, so external capital is, is really limited, but I do owe our existing shareholders some liquidity and s…”
Assertion Supported
Virwani: WeWork India charges between 8,000 and 40,000 rupees per desk
“We start even as low as 8000 bucks in in certain locations and we go as high as 40,000 you know for a dedicated private office in in some locations”
Assertion Contradicted
Virwani: IT companies drive 60% of India's commercial real estate demand
“India generally about 60% of all, you know, demand commercial, let's say comes from IT, which is our ITS, which is, you know, tech companies, tech, services.”
Assertion Supported
Virwani: Coworking occupies up to 8% of India's Grade A commercial real estate
“Co-working right now is, like, between six to eight percent of All of commercial real estate. So Indian, you know, grade A supply is like eight hundred million square foot of all the supply. Coworking right now is just about like 40 odd million.”
Assertion Supported
Virwani: Flexible workspaces are now the third largest commercial real estate occupiers
“We as flex industry have become the third highest taker of space, which never used to exist. So it's IT, ITS, banking and, you know, financial services. And then, like, Flex, that is taking a lot of real estate.”
