Regus to open new centre in Rwanda to capture rapid East African growth

Regus, the world’s largest provider of flexible workplaces, is opening its first business centre in Rwanda, in Kigali City, to keep pace with rising demand for flexible workspaces in East Africa.

Regus has seen a 47% surge in demand for its services in the region and 40% year-on-year growth in enquiries across the continent. With the latest launch in Rwanda, Regus now has locations in seven countries in East Africa, including: Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Zambia, Mauritius and Madagascar, and a global presence in 97 countries.

Mark Dixon, CEO of Regus, said: "We are launching a new centre in Rwanda to provide businesses with smarter, flexible ways to grow and explore the opportunities created by economic growth in East Africa. We help them to do so at minimal upfront cost, without committing themselves to long-term premises. These advantages have fuelled demand for our services across Africa and especially East Africa where we intend to double the size of our network by 2014.”

The Rwanda opening continues the rapid expansion of Regus’ network in Africa and worldwide. The company recently reiterated its plan to open 200 new centres worldwide by the end of 2012.

The growth of the Regus network is helping more and more companies to open up new revenue streams in Africa’s emerging and frontier markets, without the high upfront costs of taking on long-term space abroad. These markets offer huge opportunities to businesses in all sectors, with The Economist predicting that seven of the world’s top ten fastest-growing economies in 2011-15 will be in Africa, including Rwanda. At the same time the International Monetary Fund predicts Rwanda’s GDP will reach 7% in 2013. Business centres like Regus’ new location in Kigali offer companies of all sizes and in all sectors a low-cost, flexible base to explore these high growth markets – to network, find partners or suppliers and recruit staff.

Note to Editors

Regus Kigali City Tower centre is located in the central business district of Rwanda’s capital, Kigali. It offers work-ready Offices, Meeting Rooms and a Business Lounge where mobile workers can drop in to meet people, send emails, make calls or print documents. The centre’s advanced facilities include business class internet access and it is conveniently placed for the international airport, which is 15 minutes away by road.

About Regus

Regus is the world’s largest provider of flexible workplaces, with products and services ranging from fully equipped offices to professional meeting rooms, business lounges and the world’s largest network of video communication studios. Regus enables people to work their way, whether it’s from home, on the road or from an office. Customers such as Google, GlaxoSmithKline, and Nokia join hundreds of thousands of growing small and medium businesses that benefit from outsourcing their office and workplace needs to Regus, allowing them to focus on their core activities.

More than a million customers a day benefit from Regus facilities spread across a global footprint of 1,200 locations in 550 cities and 97 countries, which allow individuals and companies to work wherever, however and whenever they want to. Regus was founded in Brussels, Belgium in 1989, is headquartered in Luxembourg and listed on the London Stock Exchange. For more information please visit: www.regus.com