Regus buys US rival for £163m
REGUS has snapped up US rival HQ Global for $302.5m (£163.5m) in cash, making it the biggest provider of serviced office space in America.
It will come as a relief for chief executive and founder Mark Dixon, who this year moved house from the UK to Connecticut and who has twice failed to pull off a deal for HQ.
Regus almost sank after too-rapid expansion in the US in the early Nineties and that part of the business emerged from bankruptcy only nine months ago.
Allaying fears of a repeat in the Americas, Dixon said: ' This is a well-established business that has been around for 40 years - the market leader in the US. We were the biggest in the world, they were number two. We are combining to make the largest global player. The combination is compelling.'
The HQ deal lifts the US share of overall group revenue to 43% from 22% and doubles the number of towns in the US with a Regus centre to 100. Globally, Regus will have 650 sites.
Regus is part-funding the deal with a placing of nearly 200m shares at 62 1/4p each, raising £119m net of expenses.
Dixon is personally investing around £620,000 to buy another one million shares but after the placing his stake in Regus is diluted to 37.25% from 46%.
