Shares in IWG, the world’s biggest serviced-offices firm, sank more than 16% on Monday after it said countrywide lockdowns will put pressure on it.
The Regus operator said it will not pay a final dividend of 4.8p, and it will temporarily suspend a £100 million shares buyback.
IWG, led by Mark Dixon, has scrapped profit forecasts for the year and shares dived 27.1p to 132.9p.
IWG's board said it is confident in the long-term structural growth drivers of the global flexible work market.
The latest moves will spread fear over WeWork- style shared office firms which typically have short-term lettings to smaller businesses which may not be renewed, but still need to pay rents to their own landlords.
A special committee of flexible offices giant WeWork’s board is preparing for a fight against Japan’s SoftBank, saying the firm should complete a $3 billion plan to buy additional shares in WeWork as part of a bailout.
