Exclusive: Co-working firm Second Home launches sale process amid battle for rescue cash
Shared office firm Second Home has started scouting for a buyer in parallel with efforts to secure rescue cash, CityA.M. understands.
The workspace provider has launched a sale process after administrators from FRP Advisory were called in to help fend off insolvency.
Headed by a former aide to ex-Prime Minister David Cameron, Rohan Silva, Second Home was battling to secure some £6m of rescue cash from investors in April.
Now, CityA.M. understands that the firm has launched an accelerated sale process (AMA), calling for bids from potential suitors.
Second Home has received a number of funding offers from existing investors in recent weeks, according to a source close to the matter.
The process is seen as a ‘plan B’ for shareholders in case a funding round is not closed.
The 2014-founded firm is working to clinch a deal within the next few weeks, CityA.M. understands.
A sales process was “the prudent and responsible thing”, alongside a pursuit of emergency funding, the source added.
The company is loss-making but a source said all of its co-working locations would be profitable within “the next couple of months.”
Some 50 per cent of the company’s locations are profitable despite the co-working industry being “hit hard” by Covid lockdowns, they added.
Investors in the firm, which has a portfolio of four sites in London, include Tencent chair Martin Lau, investment bank Goldman Sachs and private equity titan Index Ventures.
Big name investors also include the state-backed Future Fund, set up by chancellor Rishi Sunak – meaning a collapse of Second Home could spell jeopardy for millions of pounds of tax payer cash.
Co-working spaces have struggled amid lockdown changes to working patterns.
Second Home declined to comment.