Skanska has purchased from Academic Business Incubators (AIP) the remaining shares in Business Link – the largest network of coworking and private offices for rent in Poland. Skanska had held a 40% stake.
The acquisition of Business Link will allow the office company to better match its offering to the needs and expectations of companies using flexible workspace.
Taking into account the development prospects of the modern coworking space sector and the strong position of Business Link in this market, Skanska decided to buy the remaining shares in Business Link from AIP.
Business Link manages 5 Business Link offices located in the Astoria office building in Warsaw and in buildings developed by Skanska in Poznan (Maraton), Krakow (High5ive), Wroclaw (Green2Day) and Prague (Visionary). Other Business Link locations will be managed by AIP.
“We are convinced that coworking spaces will play an ever more important role in the real estate market. For us, the acquisition of the remaining shares in Business Link is yet another step towards expansion and even greater adjustment of the offering to the needs of our corporate clients as well as those of budding entrepreneurs, who create innovative startups. Since the beginning of our cooperation it has been one of the scenarios for the development of this business by Skanska”, said Arkadiusz Rudzki, managing director at Skanska in Poland.
“Business Links, which we have created over the last decade, is a milestone in building a startup ecosystem in Poland and this part of Europe. We have created a leader in the coworking spaces sector in CEE, bringing together over 2,600 entrepreneurs. We operate in a dozen or so locations with a total area of more than 35,000 sqm. Locations such as Business Link Astoria, Business Link High5ive or Business Link Zebra enjoy 100% occupancy and we even have waiting lists. The most important point, however, is that within the ecosystem created, we have provided space for development for many business starters and enabled change for corporations. In the near future my aim will be to provide new tools which, just like Business.Link, AIP, AIP Seed Capital or bValue, are groundbreaking and give unique value to entrepreneurial Poles and residents of this region of the world”, says Dariusz Żuk, co-founder of Business Link and AIP.