The Competition Between IWG And WeWork Is Heating Up

This week, CC Capital revealed it has no plans to make a buyout offer for IWG, following the office operator’s warning that it would see slow profit growth this year.

Even more,IWG’s shares have remained around 300p, a steep dip from its pre-pandemic record of 469p that valued the business at £4.7 billion.

If the company ever wants to return to this valuation, it will take a lot of time.

However, the flexible office market has seen an increase in interest in recent months as companies look towards adopting hub-and-spoke models, which IWG is well-suited for.

Yet, the once-disgraced coworking company WeWork has slowly remedied its tarnished reputation and now has plans to go public via merging with a special purpose acquisition company. This would value the New York-based operator at $9 billion, which is nearly twice IWG’s current market capitalization despite being a much larger company.

IWG has over 3,300 business centers worldwide, compared to WeWork’s 851. Additionally, IWG saw $3.4 billion in revenue and $800 million in losses last year, compared to WeWork’s $3.2 billion in revenue and $3.8 billion in losses.

However, WeWork is still receiving the backing to be the head honcho in the future of workplace arrangements.

Why? Largely due to the fact that the operator has been using its Millennial-geared brand to adopt franchising agreements and licensees.

Although IWG has also used the asset-light franchise model, its progress with this model has slowed since November 2019.