Hong Kong's largest flex-office provider seeks deals with vacant-office landlords
The trend of companies offering flexible working arrangements to retain their top talent, far from a pandemic-era fad, is now a permanent fixture of the office property market, according to
International Workplace Group (IWG).
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In addition, global economic uncertainty was shaping office-space demand, driving companies away from being tied to traditional office leases, said Marc Descrozaille, CEO for Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific with the Switzerland-headquartered flex-desk service provider.
Descrozaille credited these trends with boosting system-wide revenue for the group by 2 per cent to a record US$4.2 billion in 2024. Operating profit grew 185 per cent to US$510 million.
IWG, which operates brands such as Regus, Signature and Spaces, has more than 4,000 locations across 120 countries, and expanded by a record 899 last year, with 115 of them in Asia-Pacific. With 21 centres in Hong Kong, the group is the city's largest flexible office provider.
'Offices aren't going anywhere, but their role is changing,' Descrozaille said. 'Headquarters, for example, are becoming more like creative hubs – places designed specifically for collaboration and connection, with purpose-built spaces and activities.'
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'Hybrid work is definitely here to stay and is the future. Flexibility isn't just a perk any more, it's essential. Companies will increasingly focus on giving their teams the power to choose where and how they work to keep productivity high.'
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Asia Times
19 hours ago
- Asia Times
Hopes for a Xi-Trump summit are naively misplaced
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Trump claimed on social media that the call delivered a 'positive conclusion', including on China's restrictions on critical mineral exports, and that lower-level discussions on trade would follow. He said, 'We're in very good shape with China and the trade deal.' Both leaders invited each other to visit their countries. However, reports noted that there was nothing in either side's official statements to indicate the critical mineral issue had been resolved. And China has reasonable cause to remain on guard despite Trump's post-call positivity. Let us count the many impediments to real and lasting reconciliation: The most acute danger stems from Trump's lack of strategic coherence. Unlike the Kissinger-Nixon doctrine of detente, which was structured, calculated and guided by a realpolitik vision of global balance, Trump's approach is reactive and transactional and thus prone to Chinese manipulation. Concessions, including the reopening of student exchanges on the US side and lifting critcal mineral restrictions on China's—appear to be issued in exchange for vague 'reciprocity' rather than any long-term strategic realignment. For Beijing, such inconsistency is easily exploitable. Xi understands that Trump is prone to tactical surprises and policy reversals, allowing China to notch one-by-one concessions while offering minimal structural reforms or broad policy changes in return. This understanding of Trump's tactics and views may also embolden China to keep testing US resolve and commitment in the Taiwan Strait, East Sea and South China Seas, knowing that by doing so it strengthens its negotiating leverage in wresting future US concessions. Much has been made of US-endorsed 'de-risking' from China without actually 'decoupling.' 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HKFP
a day ago
- HKFP
Trump, Xi hold long-awaited phone call on US-China trade war
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RTHK
a day ago
- RTHK
US$92b Fukushima damages order overturned
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