Regus to set up Swiss holding company outside EU

Workplace provider Regus is to set up a new holding company outside the EU in Switzerland called International Working Group as part of its plan to provide work solutions across multiple brands.

The new holding company will be incorporated in Jersey but have its headquarters in Switzerland, as it has several benefits, instead of Regus’ current home in Luxembourg.

The FTSE 250 company said that there “continues to be some medium to long term uncertainty surrounding the future shape of the EU and in particular its increasingly complex legislative environment.

“As Switzerland is outside the EU, the board considers that there may be advantages from being domiciled there.”

The company said as it develops globally there has been an “increasing presence of senior management located in Switzerland” as the financial control, treasury and procurement functions are all run from the country.

It added that all of the directors of Old Regus have been appointed to the IWG’s board and maintained that there no changes to corporate governance and investor protection measures which apply to IWG from those that currently apply to Old Regus.

Meanwhile, the company reported that its revenue grew 8.1% to £1.6bn for the nine months ended 30 September at a constant currency basis, compared to last year, while post-tax cash returns on net growth investment have also increased further.

The company said it is confident of delivering a full year performance in line with expectations.

For the quarter ended 30 September, revenue increased 3.8% to £566.9m at constant currency rates, or 18.4% at actual rates.

Underlying cash generation increased 52% year-on-year to £208.9m.

During the third quarter 56 new locations were added to global network with associated growth capital investment of £43.1m, which included a £12.9m investment on properties

In the year to date, 169 new locations were added with net capital expenditure of £126.2m representing over 2.4m square feet of space added to the network, which totals more than 47m square feet, while 54 locations were closed.

Net debt narrowed to £158.1m from £173.8m at the end of June.