Adam Neumann has made a fresh push to regain control of WeWork even as the co-working pioneer races to raise hundreds of millions of dollars to emerge from bankruptcy and avoid a sale, according to two people familiar with the matter. The company has attempted to restructure in court since filing for bankruptcy in November, primarily by renegotiating hundreds of leases.

However, it was running short of cash and needed as much as $400m in fresh funding to have a chance of emerging viably, the people said.

The figure required remains in flux but if WeWork was unable to raise new money, then it would have to pivot to selling itself, according to one of the people.

Neumann stepped down as WeWork’s chief executive officer in 2019 after a failed attempt to take the company he co-founded public. Flow, his new property company, has already made a conditional offer of about $600m for WeWork.