The UK and the US are the two most competitive markets in the world for serviced office space and Servcorp may find it harder to succeed than it anticipates.
"There are some hints in this article about Kingshott that Serviced Office Group needed the cash from the recent deals."
In the recession these companies are seeking to reduce costs by using less space leading to an increase in subletting of surplus space by corporate tenants and downward pressure on rates because of surplus floors or whole buildings. The implications of this are, first, it will be even more important to choose the best location for a business centre; avoiding locations where workers have to commute long distances by car is a good idea, and second, business centre operators will themselves have to be flexible in terms of what they offer to their customers, and ready to adapt to changes in both what clients want and who the clients are.
Regarding Citibase’s listing with AIM, Steve said, “We’ll return to float when the time is right.”