International Workplace Group plc, formerly Regus, is a British

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the Security (finance), securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own Share ...

.IWG PLC
Bloomberg. Accessed June 2021. It provides

serviced office A serviced office is an office or office building that is fully equipped and managed by a facility management company, also known as an office provider, which then rents individual offices or floors to other companies. Serviced offices, also referr ...

s under several brand-names, including Regus.IWG PLC
Reuters. Accessed June 2021. It was started in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

, Belgium, by Mark Dixon in 1989. It is registered in

Saint Helier St Helier (; Jèrriais: ; ) is the Capital city, capital of Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands in the English Channel. It is the most populous of the twelve parishes of Jersey, with a population of 35,822, over one-third of the island' ...

Jersey Jersey ( ; ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey, is an autonomous and self-governing island territory of the British Islands. Although as a British Crown Dependency it is not a sovereign state, it has its own distinguishing civil and gov ...

, and has its head office in

Zug Zug (Standard German: , Alemannic German: ; ; ; ; )Named in the 16th century. is the largest List of cities in Switzerland, town and capital of the Swiss canton of Zug. Zug is renowned as a hub for some of the wealthiest individuals in the wor ...

, Switzerland. It is listed on the

London Stock Exchange The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...

and is a constituent of the

FTSE 250 Index The Financial Times Stock Exchange 250 Index, also called the FTSE 250 Index, FTSE 250, or, informally, the "Footsie 250" , is a stock market index that consists of the 101st to the 350th mid-cap blue chip companies listed on the London Stock ...

. In 2020 the company was in difficulty, and filed for bankruptcy for 97 entities connected to Regus and to its co-working brand Spaces. However, it was expected to break even in 2023 after three years of losses.

History

The company was founded as "Regus" by English

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

Mark Dixon with the objective of providing flexible office space to customers in Brussels in 1989. In 1994, Regus entered Latin America with a centre in

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

and Asia with its first centre in

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

2000s

The company completed a successful

IPO An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

on the

in 2000. In 2001, it acquired ''Stratis Business Centers'', a U.S.-based network of franchised business centres. Five Regus employees died in the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

, as Regus had a business centre on the 93rd floor of the South Tower. The company was criticised for a lack of response to the victims' families, though a Regus official said they had made "proactive outreach to every family of the team members who are missing." In 2002, the company sold a controlling stake (58%) of its UK business to Rex 2002 Limited, a company created by the private equity firm Alchemy Partners. This move raised £51 million for the company, which had been facing severe financial difficulties. In 2003, Regus filed for

Chapter 11 bankruptcy Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code ( Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, w ...

protection for its U.S. business, which had been struggling in the wake of the

dot-com bubble The dot-com bubble (or dot-com boom) was a stock market bubble that ballooned during the late-1990s and peaked on Friday, March 10, 2000. This period of market growth coincided with the widespread adoption of the World Wide Web and the Interne ...

. A year later, it took its U.S. business out of Chapter 11 after restructuring, financed by its share of the profitable UK business. The company acquired ''HQ Global Workplaces'', workplace provider based in the U.S. in 2004. It re-acquired the Regus UK business in 2006 for £88 million. The company went on to acquire ''Laptop Lane'', a chain of American airport business centres, later that year. In 2006, the company entered partnerships with

Air France-KLM An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmospher ...

and

American Airlines American Airlines, Inc. is a major airlines of the United States, major airline in the United States headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, and is the Largest airlines in the world, largest airline in the ...

for preferred access for business travellers and in 2007, it entered a partnership with

American Express American Express Company or Amex is an American bank holding company and multinational financial services corporation that specializes in payment card industry, payment cards. It is headquartered at 200 Vesey Street, also known as American Expr ...

for preferred access for their Business Platinum cardholders. In 2007, Regus opened business centres in Bulgaria and the Middle East. In June 2008, Regus introduced Businessworld, a multi-level membership service for flexible access to its services in any of its locations. Effective 14 October 2008, Regus Group plc became Regus plc. Regus plc was created as a

for Regus Group plc, to establish the company's headquarters in Luxembourg and its registered office in Jersey. Regus has maintained a policy of expansion, opening new business centres. It has also renegotiated some leasing agreements with property owners in the UK to save money, warning owners that the vehicles holding the leases could go into administration (

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the deb ...

); this has angered the British property industry. A

legal case Legal proceeding is an activity that seeks to invoke the power of a tribunal in order to enforce a law. Although the term may be defined more broadly or more narrowly as circumstances require, it has been noted that " e term ''legal proceedings'' ...

involving Epcot Solutions Ltd and Regus, decided in the

Court of Appeal An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to Hearing (law), hear a Legal case, case upon appeal from a trial court or other ...

in 2008, involved assessing whether the standard

exclusion clause Exclusion clauses and limitation clauses are terms in a contract which seek to restrict the rights of the parties to the contract. Traditionally, the district courts have sought to limit the operation of exclusion clauses. In addition to numerous ...

in Regus' terms and conditions could be justified. Epcot complained about Regus' failure to maintain air conditioning at its

Stockley Park Stockley Park is a business estate and public country park located between Hayes, Yiewsley, and West Drayton in the London Borough of Hillingdon. In August 2020, it was listed in the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of Special Historic In ...

business centre in west London. The judge at first instance had ruled that Regus' exclusion clause was unreasonable but the Court of Appeal reversed this ruling.

2010s

On 5 July 2012, UK Prime Minister David Cameron announced that Regus would provide 30,000 young entrepreneurs across England with access to its network of offices, complementing the Government's StartUp Loans scheme managed by

James Caan James Edmund Caan ( ; March 26, 1940 – July 6, 2022) was an American actor. He came to prominence playing Sonny Corleone in ''The Godfather'' (1972), for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, Academy Award an ...

. On 19 February 2013, the firm took control of MWB BE, a large UK-based serviced office provider with a £65.6m cash bid. In December 2016, under a scheme of arrangement, the company established a new holding company IWG (International Workplace Group) and announced its intention to move its base outside the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

referring to the "increasingly complex legislative environment". The new head office was established in Zug, Switzerland. In 2019 IWG had approximately 3,000 coworking spaces in around 120 countries.

2020 to present

In 2020, as a result of the

Covid-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, IWG experienced financial difficulties; over a few months it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for 97 different entities connected to both Regus and its co-working brand Spaces. The rise of more localised working in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic led to suburban locations becoming among the company’s fastest-growing locations. In February 2021, IWG acquired a majority stake in The Wing women's co-working network, which subsequently ceased operations on 30 August 2022. In March 2022, IWG merged its digital business with The Instant Group. Digital assets included in the transaction included Easyoffices.com, Meetingo.com, Rovva and Worka. IWG opened a location at Battersea Power Station, The Engine Room, within the Grade II-listed Boiler House, in June 2023. It is the first flexible workspace to open at the redeveloped London landmark. In June 2024, IWG confirmed its name change to International Workplace Group plc. The name change was accompanied by the shifting of its reporting currency and the denomination of its shares from sterling to US dollars.

References

External links