IWG Shares Drop Sharply As Brookfield Drops $3.7B Bid
Shares in the world’s biggest flexible office firm, IWG, fell Thursday afternoon after a joint venture between Brookfield and Onex said they would not be making a bid for the company.
London-listed IWG's shares fell 16%, wiping around £550M ($800M) from the value of the business, which had a market capitalisation of around £2B ($2.9B) at the close of trading.
IWG, previously called Regus, said in December that Brookfield and Onex had made an indicative proposal ahead of a formal bid. Ultimately no bid was forthcoming, with reports having indicated that the duo were weighing an offer of around $3.7B for IWG.
IWG is the world’s largest flexible office company with more than 3,000 offices in more than 100 countries.
The firm also released a trading update alongside news that no bid from Brookfield and Onex would be forthcoming.
It said that revenue in its mature business in major cities like London or New York returned to growth in the fourth quarter, after declining in the third quarter. Those declines caused IWG to issue a profit warning, which caused its share price to drop by close to 40%.
