IWG PLC (LON:IWG) has cut its network of offices back further as it said recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic is taking longer than expected.
Mark Dixon, chief executive of the serviced workspace specialist, said he expects 'challenging market conditions to prevail' for a few months to come.
Dixon added that 2020 was the most challenging year in memory for IWG, but he expects a ‘massive surge’ in growth when the world eventually emerges from the COVID-19 crisis.
IWG’s revenues held up in the year to end December 2020 at £2.48bn (£2.65bn in 2019), but the brunt of the crisis was borne by the bottom line with after-tax losses of £650mln (£77mln profit).
Costs for rationalising its office network were £322mln and IWG said total COVID-19 costs amounted to £380mln, though cost-saving measures should result in an annual benefit of between £325-375mln.
The group added it generated net cash of £967mln over the year and the directors said they don’t consider there to be a liquidity risk with £731mln of a loan facility undrawn and total liquidity headroom of £802mln, but the accounts were still prepared on a going concern basis.