Regus profits leap is good news for founder Dixon

Mark Dixon, the chief executive of Regus, became £3.2m richer yesterday as the serviced office group he founded in 1989 more than doubled profits and upped the dividend by 11 per cent.

Despite a "challenging" UK market, Mr Dixon, who owns 34 per cent of the business, unveiled a 133 per cent rise in pre-tax profits to £32.2m in the first half of the year. The group, which has nearly 1,300 office centres around the world, is on track to raise this number to 2,000 by 2014, although most of that growth will be in faster-growing emerging markets. The interim dividend was raised from 0.9p to 1p, triggering Mr Dixon's multi-million payout.

Mr Dixon said business in London during the Olympics was slower, but the group's other centres in the South-east benefited as would-be workers fearing transport chaos avoided the capital.