Regus upbeat on progress

Regus, the serviced offices group, has reported continued progress despite the muted economic environment. Doug Sutherland, chairman, said trading in the first quarter of the calendar year was “in line with management expectations”.
Revenues increased 8.1 percent to £368.4m compared with the same period the previous year. Regus said it had continued to invest in growth, expanding its geographic presence into new countries and deepening its network within existing cities. This resulted in an increase in the number of workstations in the four months to the end of April to 192,128.

Sutherland said Regus continued to make progress with investment in sales and marketing to drive enquiries and occupancy, streamlining process and structures, and product and service innovation. The net cash position stood at £191m at the end of April after investing £21.1m during the quarter.

He said Regus remained cautious on the economy but it continued to be encouraged by recent positive trends that reflected its continued strategic delivery. “The group is well positioned for a year of solid revenue growth and business improvement with continuing strong underlying cash flow generation,” he said.