When Soho House went public in 2021, the operator of private members clubs told investors that it could become a successful publicly traded business.
Now the company is going private again.
Soho House, which is based in London, agreed to sell itself to a group of investors at a valuation of $2.7 billion, including debt, the company said on Monday.
The transaction is the latest chapter for the company, which helped popularize a new generation of clubs where members spend thousands of dollars a year to eat, drink and socialize with similarly deep pockets.
But Soho House has also battled a number of challenges over the years, including the pandemic and, more recently, investors who have questioned its business model. The company has lost money for most of its existence as a public company, though it reported quarterly profits this year. Its stock price ended last week down 45 percent from its initial public offering price.
Its critics have long pointed out that, as a public company, Soho House is obligated to pursue growth — it now has 46 Soho House locations, as well as other branded clubs, work spaces and hotels around the world, and more than 270,000 members as of June 30 — but that strategy threatens its image of exclusivity.
Last year, the short-seller Glasshouse Research, which was betting on a decline in the company’s stock price, argued that the club operator had a “broken business model and terrible accounting.”
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The post Soho House to Be Taken Private in $2.7 Billion Deal appeared first on New York Times.
