IWG, the world’s largest supplier of serviced workplace area, reported document income final yr after cashing in on the recognition of hybrid working.

Mark Dixon, the property trade veteran and IWG’s founder and chief govt, believes that head places of work have gotten “both useless or a lot smaller” now that working from dwelling has grow to be extra standard.

“[Hybrid working] is a type of issues the place everyone seems to be a winner, until you’re an actual property investor with places of work in downtown areas,” Dixon, 63, stated. “It’s a a lot greener end result, decrease prices for firms and significantly better for individuals.”

He stated these workplace homeowners have turned to IWG, previously often called Regus, to assist prepared their buildings for versatile working. IWG has seen “fast development” in demand for what it calls capital-light contracts, the place landlords hand over their buildings and ask IWG to run them as serviced places of work.

“In the event you’re a landlord, you’re a completely new panorama, the place the tenants you used to have aren’t there any extra, so that you’re on the lookout for new concepts,” Dixon defined. “They realise that [businesses] are shifting to hybrid working, so that they name us and ask us to place their property on the platform and we fill it up for them and create income.”

Final yr, IWG signed 462 such contracts and it’s on observe to signal extra this yr. Hybrid working has additionally helped IWG to enroll extra occupiers, a few of which have begun to ditch their long-term leases of total flooring and buildings and change them with shorter, extra versatile offers as a substitute. Occupancy inside IWG’s places of work has risen to 73.5 per cent from 68.2 per cent a yr in the past.

Due to that, along with some worth will increase to cowl rising prices, IWG generated document revenues of £3.1 billion in 2022, a 24 per cent enhance on the £2.5 billion it turned over in 2021.

The group, which has about 3,400 centres in 120 nations, was based by Dixon in 1989 when he opened his first workplace in Brussels. He stays the corporate’s largest shareholder, with a 28.6 per cent stake value about £550 million.

IWG swung to an working revenue of £147 million, versus an working lack of £87 million within the earlier yr. Nonetheless, on a statutory foundation, the corporate fell to a pre-tax lack of £105 million, down from £259 million in 2021.

That partly mirrored elevated finance prices as rates of interest spiralled larger, in addition to further funding into Worka, a brand new workspace reserving app that IWG is constructing out after having merged its digital belongings with the Instantaneous Group this time final yr. There was some speak final autumn that personal fairness corporations have been eyeing up Worka. IWG confirmed that it was “persevering with plans to guage lowering its possession stake”.

Wanting forward, Dixon stated that “momentum continues going into 2023”, with income, working income, occupancy and pricing all choosing up in the direction of the top of final yr.

IWG shares rose 3¾p, or 2 per cent, to 192p yesterday, valuing the enterprise at near £2 billion.