“CEO SUITE Expanding in Region on Bullish Demand”

KUALA LUMPUR: CEO SUITE Group, which owns and operates 13 business centres in Asia, is expanding in the region, despite concerns of global economic uncertainties.
Its founder and president Mee Kim is bullish on demand, citing the number of companies from the US, Europe and the Middle East moving to Asia for smaller office space.
“This is a growing industry. Business centres are mushrooming. In Toronto, there are over 200operators. It is going to be the biggest trend now.”
“Business centres not only reduce operation cost, but offer companies high savings in their capital investment,” Mee Kim said in an interview with Business Times recently.
The business centres offer the latest office technology, shared facilities and bilingual business support service.
It has VIP chambers, board rooms, meeting rooms, virtual offices, video conference facilities, multimedia applications and broadband high speed Internet access.
CEO SUITE has business centres in Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Shanghai, Beijing, Manila, Bangkok and Seoul and all of them are fully occupied.
For its expansion, it plans to use its internally generate funds.
“We have no plans to list CEO SUITE. We don’t want to be like the big boys, raising money via a listing, and then buying smaller operators to expand.
“We want to expand as and when we feel comfortable, and know that we can manage new businesses,” Mee Kim said.
CEO SUITE opened its first business centre in Jakarta in 1997. It expanded into Kuala Lumpur in 2001 and now operates one business centre at KL Sentral and two in Menara Maxis.
The business centres in Kuala Lumpur offer office space ranging from 150sqft to about 600sqft, for between RM2, 000 and RM20, 000 a month.
Majority of the clients here are from the US, Europe, Middle East, Australia and India. They operate in various fields like oil and gas, consultancy, information technology and banking.
Mee Kim said the Malaysian staff will play a role in the group’s global expansion.
“I see the Malaysian team leading the rest of our employees in Asia. They are strong, passionate and speak multiple languages.” She said.
CEO SUITE employs around 120 people at group level and 30 are Malaysians.

Apr 26, 2013