Two of the USA’s serviced office providers – HQ Global Workplaces and VANTAS – are merging in a US$1bn (£0.6bn) deal, which will create the world’s largest network of serviced offices.
The merged company, to be known as HQ Global Workplaces (HQGW), will be the world’s largest virtual and physical workspace provider. HQGW will serve around 43,000 customers through 500 centres in 24 countries. The combined company is expected to generate over US$500m in revenue in 2000.
Peter Kershaw will remain managing director of the European arm of HQ.
As part of the deal CarrAmerica will receive US$380m (£230.3m) cash and around 19% of the equity in the combined company. FrontLine Capital Group (which engineered the merger) and minority shareholders will own around 81% of the combined company. The transaction is expected to be funded with bank debt of the combined company and equity from strategic partners.
Gary Kusin, chief executive officer of HQ Global Workplaces commented: “Our partnership with FrontLine catapults us into a new league and empowers us to create entirely new services with greater value to a dramatically larger client base.”
EGi News 25/01/00
