Asia’s flexible workspace market is consolidating rapidly, as US-based Industrious acquired The Great Room‘s assets in Singapore, Hong Kong and Bangkok.
Headquartered in Singapore and co-founded in 2016 by Jaelle Ang, Su-Anne Mi and Yian Huang, The Great Room consists of seven flexible workplace locations in the three cities staffed by 70 employees.
“We are at the crossroads of a fundamental paradigm shift in how and where people work, a key element of which is the evolution of how companies think about the workplace,” said Ang.
Hong Kong’s workspace market is expected to grow 14.4% this year, with new regional players Compass Office and Garage Society driving the supply.
It is expected in the coming years companies are going to shift their focus from rental to non-rental revenue streams such as business concierge, accounting, human resources, payroll and task management services and others in order to bring profitability and sustainability in business, India-based Ken Research said.
“This in turn will drive the demand of flexible workspaces by enterprises and MNCs (multinational companies) to save costs or provide mobility for staff,” the company said.
Flexible workspace operators have been expanding their regional presence. For instance, Beijing-based Ucommune acquired six flexible workspace operators in 2018 and WeWork acquired NakedHub in 2018 and expanded to 23 new locations in China.
Last year, Hong Kong-based flexible workspace provider The Executive Centre was acquired by private-equity firm KKR and Tiga Investments for an undisclosed amount.
It marked the latest consolidation in an industry that has been restructuring amid the global downturn triggered by Covid-19.
- George Russell
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