M&A activity in the sector accelerates

g8 founder Douglas Green talks about the recent M&A activity in the flex industry. 

"TOG and Fora are two high-quality operations with massive backing behind them, and the deal brings together two leading brands focused on central London (I also think it's interesting that it's being called a merger, not an acquisition).

Since Covid, there has been a flight to quality, and these two providers are well known for providing a premium product, which is what occupiers are looking for. There are plenty of other fantastic providers in the market who sell on quality, but they won't have the scale of this new entity.

I think this will be the trigger for further M&A activity in the future. Now that most operators have got their occupancy and pricing back to pre-Covid levels, the ones who were previously looking to exit will start to consider their options again. I'm already getting calls about this, and there's a huge appetite in the market for scale. So I think this is a real turning point.

Of course, the other recent M&A deal was the IWG acquisition of Instant Offices. It's not the first time IWG have bought a broker. In time, it will be interesting to see what the drivers for the deal were. But how does it work when the largest operator in the world owns an impartial, independent broker?

The Instant Group has a substantial managed business, and they also are leaders in creating flex data, which has considerable value. IWG want to corner all markets where they possibly can, and it ceratinly resonates with their previous M&A activity.

For me, I think the key will be retaining their independence."