Share trading desks buzz with talk of bidding war for office provider IWG

Investors jumped on a takeover bandwagon yesterday after it emerged that three companies separately had expressed an interest in buying IWG. Shares in the world’s biggest provider of serviced offices leapt by 23%, or 57½p, to 309½p, their highest level since October, amid market expectations of an imminent bidding war. The FTSE 250 company, owner of the Regus brand and of Spaces, the co-working business, said on Friday that it had received an approach from Lone Star, the American private equity company, plus two indicative proposals from Starwood Capital, another US investment firm, and TDR Capital, a London-based private equity group. According to The Telegraph, the three-way bidding war suggest that investors think there is life in the sector, even as the highly valued newcomer WeWork threatens to eclipse more traditional competition. Click here for the full Times article (£) Click here for the full Telegraph article (£) Click here for the full FT article (£)