Marcelo Claure’s resume is full of success. To name a few, he founded a multinational mobile phone agency, successfully completed the complex merger of Sprint and T-Mobile, and helped lead the fairy-tale run of Spanish soccer club Girona.
So the 53-year-old Bolivian-American billionaire is perhaps best known in the public consciousness for his association with WeWork, a start-up that was once valued at $47 billion before spectacularly failing. It’s infuriating to be treated like this.
Mr. Claure was dispatched by SoftBank Group’s Masayoshi Son in 2019 to stabilize a real estate company that had canceled its initial public offering due to a critical cash shortage. He has overseen a downsizing, cutting costs and downsizing the business, while expressing confidence that business will recover. But the pandemic proved decisive, as the company continued to lose billions of dollars even when it went public via a SPAC in late 2021.
Now, Claure is building his own investment empire, informed by Song’s wisdom and mistakes alike, he describes in hyperbolic terms reminiscent of his former employer.
His family office, Claure Group, is exploring deals in AI and renewable energy (“If you’re not interested in AI and climate change, you can’t be a real investor”), and Chinese fast fashion company Shein ( acquired a significant stake in “one of the most powerful companies”. He is considering ways to revolutionize soccer in the United States following the unexpected success of Girona FC (“probably one of the top teams in soccer”).
Claure will leave SoftBank in 2022, and WeWork filed for bankruptcy last year, but the drama surrounding the startup has not disappeared. Earlier this month, founder Adam Neumann emerged as a potential bidder for the bankrupt former company.
It’s partly thanks to Claure that Mr. Newman, 44, has the funds to make an offer in the first place. As chairman of WeWork, Claure negotiated an exit package that gave Neumann $291 million in cash and $578 million and $430 in WeWork stock. 1 million yen non-recourse loan from Softbank.
Mr. Claure said Mr. Neumann had already called him for advice on the bid, and showed no signs of remorse. “This was the price we had to pay to take back control of the business,” he said in an interview, noting that Son dictated the terms. “Adam didn’t have to give anyone the keys.”
WeWork’s debacle highlights the challenge of escaping the shadow of SoftBank, one of the world’s most idiosyncratic investors, which had assets of $413.6 billion at its peak in March 2021. Mr. Claure spent eight years working for Japanese companies, first as chief executive officer of portfolio company Sprint and then as chief operating officer of SoftBank.
In that role, he helped Mr. Son execute a turnaround plan for hand-picked companies, some of which were acquired at high prices by his flagship Vision Fund and whose values have since skyrocketed. His service there made him wealthy, but not as wealthy as he would have liked. Unable to agree to Claure’s $1 billion compensation request with Masa, he resigned.
jet setter
One day in late January, Mr. Claure, who is 6 feet 6 inches tall, is sitting in a conference room at his office in Manhattan’s meatpacking district. His all-black outfit blends in with the moody, industrial-chic interior. His stay in New York was short-lived. Claure, whose primary residence is in Miami, spends much of her time on the road, posting photos of her private plane and posing with politicians, business executives, family members and celebrities. He frequently introduces his travels.
In 2024 alone, he will travel to Las Vegas for the Super Bowl, Madrid for the Girona game, China, Singapore, Saudi Arabia (where his new electric boat racing team lost to the Tom Bradys), Abu Dhabi, Doha, Brazil, Argentina, Davos, France and multiple islands in the Caribbean.
Claure said his private company had $4 billion in assets, a figure that includes variable levels of debt, but he did not provide further details. Claure has bet on a number of sectors, including real estate, technology and fashion, with help from chief investment officer and former Key Square Group executive Diego Daenoff.
His most notable investment is Shein Co., which is pushing ahead with a U.S. IPO despite facing concerns over its sourcing of cotton from China’s Xinjiang region, which has been linked to copyright infringement and forced labor. Preparations are underway.
Last fall, he strengthened his mining operations by buying a majority stake in Ausenko, an Australian engineering company, along with Todd Boley’s Eldridge. He has long-term plans to extract lithium in Chile, Argentina and eventually Bolivia. Claure’s home country has the world’s largest concentration of lithium resources, which are currently controlled by the state.
“Few countries in the history of the world have had one country control one-third of the most important commodity driving the energy transition,” he said. The Bolivian government has allowed some private foreign companies to form processing and mining partnerships with state-owned mining companies, but the metal is not yet produced in commercial quantities.
“I want to make sure that my country can properly utilize these assets,” Claure said. His dream is to supply lithium mines to giant electric car factories in Mexico or Brazil.
latin america betting
Claure, who previously headed SoftBank’s Latin America fund, has been betting on the region on a standalone basis. In June, he and SoftBank alumnus Xu Nyatta founded Bicycle Capital, a venture firm focused on Latin America, with support from Abu Dhabi state fund Mubadala. He also bought a large stake in Brazilian investment firm EB Capital in October.
He competes with, and in some cases overlaps with, his former employer on transactions. For example, Bicycle and SoftBank’s Latin America Fund have both invested in Brazilian startup Gympass. Upon leaving SoftBank, Mr. Claure negotiated to receive a portion of the net proceeds from the Latin American fund. The company’s portfolio had a market value of $6.3 billion as of December 31, up from $6 billion at the end of September.
He said Bicycle and SoftBank’s funds were working together on the deal and dismissed the notion of a conflict of interest. “I just hope they do well,” he said.
Claure praised Son as a “genius” for his foresight in world-changing trends such as AI. But despite its success, he is angry that the Vision Fund’s lackluster returns have tarnished SoftBank’s name — much of which he quickly said was under his watch. Point out.
Claure almost joined Vision Fund’s management team in 2019, but reversed direction after a prolonged conflict with CEO Rajeev Misra. He instead focused on operations, including supporting the management of Sprint, ARM Holdings Plc, Fortress Investment Group, and SoFi Technologies Inc.
Mr. Claure’s first mission to Mr. Son was to rebuild Sprint. It was tasked with steering the telecommunications company amid mounting regulatory concerns related to its 2020 merger with T-Mobile. This experience further enhances his qualifications in government relations, which serve him well in his work. He is responsible for supporting Shein’s global expansion. He also acquired T-Mobile stock, which is now worth more than $1.1 billion.
In a perk common to SoftBank executives, the company loaned Mr. Claure $515 million to buy his stake. The loan is due in July, and Claure said she plans to repay it in full. He also said he owes SoftBank $196 million for loans he received to buy the company’s stock.
At SoftBank, Claure was known as an operations person, someone in charge of execution and implementation. Now, the very things that defined him are what he tries to avoid in running his family office.
“The recurring theme is that we don’t really operate anything,” Claure said of his investments across the globe and industries. “The most successful times in my life have been when I had the power to do what I wanted with the people I wanted.”
