Regus owner IWG says enquiries have rebounded to pre-Covid levels

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Office space provider IWG said enquiries bounced back to pre-Covid levels in the first quarter as it pushes ahead with its franchising strategy.

The owner of brands including Regus and Spaces said the first three months of the year had provided a “clear inflection point, with occupancy stabilising in February and improving in March”.

It said it expects the momentum to continue throughout the second quarter, with an increased demand for hybrid working, enterprise membership products and franchising opportunities.

Open centre revenue in the first quarter was down 16.1 per cent. However that is in comparison to the first three months of 2020, which had been the best quarter in IWG’s history before the pandemic hit the UK.

The FTSE 250 office landlord said today that it is “well positioned for a world of work permanently altered by the pandemic”.

“Occupancy is improving, enquiries reached pre-Covid-19 levels, an increasing pipeline of corporate customers on network-wide deals and, most importantly, service revenues starting to improve,” IWG said.

“These early signs of improvement continue to take root in many parts of the business.

“We expect continued progress in our growth strategy, with a healthy pipeline of franchise partners and various JVs and management deals with the real estate industry itself.

“Discussions have restarted on several master franchise deals. We are seeing increasing levels of openness and interest from partners wanting to work with us to grow the platform. Interest is at a level unseen in our history.”

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