* MWB books 2008 pretax profit of 14 mln stg stg, up 5 pct
* Revenues up 19 pct to 118.7 mln stg
* Benefiting as firms seek alternative to fixed premises
LONDON, March 26 (Reuters) - MWB Business Exchange, the UK's second biggest provider of office space, is benefiting from recession-hit companies saving money by using its services as an alternative to fixed premises, its CEO told Reuters.
MWB, which provides office space in the West End and City of London, on Thursday reported a 5 percent increase in 2008 pretax profit to 14 million pounds ($20.43 million) on revenues up 19 percent to 118.7 million. "You've got a lot of businesses, especially in these times, that are thinking: "God, I don't know what my business is going to be like in 3 weeks let alone 3 years so why make a long-term commitment if I don't have to," MWB's CEO John Spencer said.
Last week, the world's biggest provider of office space, Regus, reported a 25 percent rise in 2008 pretax profit, saying it had attracted new customers looking to reduce their fixed-costs to preserve cash in the recession.
Spencer said companies can make cost savings of up to 30 percent by locating staff in its business centres.
He said MWB's services had proved particularly popular with larger companies downsizing as well as start-ups unable to commit to a long-term lease.
"I've got a plethora of small companies within my buildings. Most of those businesses grow. We become an incubation service for small businesses. For larger companies, they use us to outsource projects or start up new divisions," he said.
Spencer also said the company was seeing increasing demand for its services from public sector clients.
"We've started to see a lot more government business and the public sector is an opportunity for us," he said. (Reporting by Matt Scuffham; Editing by Andrew Macdonald) ($1=.6853 Pound)