Mizuho to reduce Singapore office space by 16%

The Japanese bank is currently an anchor tenant at Asia Square Tower 2, occupying four floors or about 9,755 sq m. I

Mizuho Financial Group eyes to slash about 16% of the office space it is occupying at Asia Square Tower 2 within Singapore’s financial district, reported Bloomberg citing people with knowledge of the matter.

An anchor tenant in the building, the Japanese bank occupies four floors or about 9,755 sq m.

The sources revealed that Mizuho is also exploring how to make better use of its 18,580 sq m backup office at Changi Business Park as part of its business continuity plan. 

The move to trim office space within the city-state comes as Japan’s third biggest lender looks to revamp the workplace within global financial centres following the pandemic.

The bank has already announced plans to reduce space in London and New York after finding that employees there continued to be productive even while working from home, noted the Bloomberg report.

In Singapore, Mizuho joins Citigroup in reducing its footprint during the COVID-19 crisis. The space left vacant by Citigroup will be taken up by Amazon.com, part of a trend that sees tech giants expanding their presence in Singapore on the back of a hike in online shopping.

The Japanese bank had already been mulling an office revamp within the city-state, but such plans were exacerbated by the onset of COVID-19 and implementation of government lockdown, said the sources.

But while slashing office space could result to lower costs, the sources explained that it is not the bank’s objective. It does not also signal that Mizuho is reducing manpower, they added.

In fact, Mizuho plans to redesign its Singapore office to create a more open, communal workplace to cater the needs of the bank’s younger workforce, said the sources.

However, safe management measures will still be implemented to avoid overcrowding, they added.

Source: CommercialGuru, 23 Nov 2020