Office-sharing startup WeWork has posted a $2.06bn quarterly loss after being impacted severely by Covid-19, the announcement comes as it prepares for its stock market debut.

The company’s first attempt to go public fell in 2019 over concerns about its business model and co-founder Adam Neumann’s leadership style.

Since Neumann’s exit the company has gone through a major shakeup that has seen major job cuts and businesses sold off.

The business felt the impact of the pandemic particularly hard as social distancing rules drove a surge in people working from home and concerns about infections saw workers avoiding shared office spaces.

WeWork, which is backed by Japanese tech giant SoftBank, said its first-quarter revenue almost halved from a year ago to $598m.

Its occupancy rate edged up to 50 percent in the most recent quarter, compared to 47 percent in the previous three months.

The company also said it expects the change in working habits to increase demand for the kind of short-term leases it offers.