In its glossy annual report released in March this year IWG says it is “leading the flexible workspace revolution”. This, of course, is a subjective claim but one that Tempus would claim is false. A better description would be that IWG is madly scrabbling to catch up with a revolution that it noticed too late. IWG is the owner of Regus, the world’s biggest serviced officer provider. And it really is big. Regus operates in more than 110 countries and over 1,000 towns and cities, from Chelyabinsk in Russia and Phnom Penh in Cambodia to Addison in Texas and Weymouth in England. Size does not always mean success, however. Yesterday the FTSE 250 company issued a surprise profit warning, informing the market its operating profit
Flagging its profit warning, The Times' Tempus recommends selling shares in IWG, stating that the flexible workspace operator is struggling to catch up with a revolution it noticed too late. Underlining that this is the company’s second warning in eight months, it is suggested that weakness in its home market is due to Regus’ dull image and struggle to attract the ‘right type’ of customers rather than market conditions, The Times questions the need to up investment in its portfolio of offices in the midst of a bidding war for control of the company, cited in the warning.