6th Nov 2018 08:43
LONDON (Alliance News) - FTSE 250-listed IWG PLC said on Tuesday it saw growth in revenue for the third quarter of its financial year, with strong performances outside of the UK.
For the three months to the end of September, the office property group reported revenue at GBP637.9 million, up 10% at constant currency from GBP585.7 million the year before, through a 13% open centre revenue growth.
IWG said its performance for the period was broad-based, including good performances in the US, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions, more than offsetting disappointment from the UK.
In particular, there was high single digit growth in mature revenue from the America and EMEA regions, leading to group mature revenue rising by 3.9% at constant currency to GBP565.1 million from GBP549.8 million.
Mature occupancy for the three month period rose by 0.7 percentage points on a like-for-like basis to 74.3%.
For the nine months to September, group revenue rose by 8.1% to GBP1.84 billion from GBP1.76 billion the year before, due to an improvement in IWG's pre-2016 estate and the continued development of new additions.
During the third quarter, IWG added 72 new locations to its global network, bringing the total amount of locations added for the year to date to 204 new locations. This has added 4.7 million square feet of additional space, bringing the group's total network to 55.8 million square feet.
In addition, during the quarter IWG agreed to cover the development of 25 locations over the near-term, taking the total for the group to 115.
On Saturday, Sky News reported that IWG was looking at proposals to spin off its property estate, leaving the group with a "global franchising model".
"We will continue to take a targeted approach to growing our business, ensuring we commit resources which will deliver attractive returns. We expect increased franchising activity and our current pipeline of franchise opportunities is strong across both existing and new geographies," IWG said in a statement.
"We are also in discussions with a number of interested parties who wish to partner with us across entire countries. The board remains confident that the group will deliver a full year result in line with management's expectations," IWG added.
IWG shares were up 4.1% at 246.50p on Tuesday.
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