Real estate consultancy Incendium bought by Instant Group
London headquartered Incendium Consulting has been purchased by flexible workspace specialist Instant Group. The move, which completes for an undisclosed fee, will enable Incendium to tap into Instant’s global client base.
The UK real estate market is presently entangled in a web of conflicting developments. The diminished value of the pound has made the country attractive to investors in some respects, with billions of pounds pumped into the London property market since the Summer of 2016. However, as Brexit looms, its shadow over British real estate grows larger, and a study from online real estate platform BrickVest found that European property investors favoured Germany over the UK for the first time, while London looks set to lose out to cities like Amsterdam, Dublin and Frankfurt, once the Brexit divorce is finalised later in 2019.
Amid this state of confusion, the need for external expertise on real estate investments has been greatly emphasised, and with it the stock of consultancies in the sector has risen noticeably. The latest development in this trend has seen multinational professional services firm Instant Group move to acquire corporate real estate consultancy Incendium Consulting.
Founded in 1999, the London-headquartered Instant Group has offices in Newcastle, Florida, California, Texas, Hong Kong, Australia and Kuala Lumpor, and helps clients rethink their workspace. Instant places more than 7,000 companies a year in flexible workspace such as serviced, managed or co-working offices including Sky, Network Rail, Capita, Serco, Teleperformance, Worldpay, and TMF, making it the market leader in flexible workspace. The group gained the backing of Bowmark Capital during a management buyout in 2018, enabling it to now acquire Incendium Consulting.
An independent corporate real estate consultancy, Incendium was founded by six Partners in 2015 to provide large real estate services procurement, consulting, and change management programmes to blue-chip clients. Based in London, the firm boasts around 45 professionals, including its original Partners, and five more Directors, who will all join Instant’s global headcount of 290 people. The move will enable Incendium to benefit from tapping into Instant’s large global client network, while Instant will be able to leverage high-end consulting services as part of its portfolio of workplace solutions, thanks to the deal.
Commenting on the move, Instant Chief Executive Tim Rodber, said, “Instant is increasingly being asked to deliver ever more complex global solutions for some of the world’s largest organisations. Bringing Instant and Incendium together gives clients access to independent market-leading consultancy, world class data and delivery options that transform their approach to workplace in what is a truly distinct offer in the market.”
Mike Perkis, Managing Director at Incendium, added, “Clients are struggling to drive value through their conventional real estate strategies and are increasingly looking to introduce an agile, innovative approach that matches modern business demands… We strive to offer that point of difference and joining with Instant enables us to not only continue delivering exactly as we do today, but also to accelerate Incendium’s growth and broaden our capability in response to client demand.”
Bowmark Managing Partner Charles Ind meanwhile remarked, “We are delighted to be supporting CEO Tim Rodber and his team in the next stage of growth. With highly differentiated service offerings, market-leading data, a high proportion of long-term contracted income and deep client relationships, we believe that Instant will continue to lead the way in the fast-growing flexible workspace market.”
