Business

Firms party hearty

Corporate America is putting on its dancing shoes for employees this holiday season, digging into the massive cash hoard sitting on its balance sheets.

A record number of US companies are hosting year-end parties, and bosses are spending more on office gifts.

According to executive search firm Battalia Winston, a dizzying 91 percent of the 105 companies it recently surveyed nationwide will host holiday parties this year — up from 74 percent in 2011, 79 percent in 2010, 81 percent in 2009 and 2008, and 85 percent in 2007.

“It seems that companies are moving back to a state of normality,” Dale Winston — CEO of global executive search firm Battalia Winston — said, referring to the pickup in corporate parties. “Parties are still the last vestige of company sociability.

“From the beginning, the study has been a reliable barometer of both prevailing economic conditions and corporate confidence,” Winston added.

Many local hotels and watering holes have booked up fast for corporate entertaining, surveys and interviews with hospitality execs reveal.

“It is the single-malt scotch and cocktail crowd we’ll be serving this year,” said a triumphant Mark Grossich, CEO of a luxury chain of stylish cocktail lounges in New York that includes The World Bar in the Trump World Tower, The Carnegie Club in CitySpire Centre and The Campbell Apartment in Grand Central Terminal. “We are talking tens of thousands of dollars on each party,” Grossich said. “About $100 to $150 [per guest], with cocktails and hors d’oeuvres.”

Corporate America won’t have trouble paying this year’s gigantic tab. It has cash idling on the sidelines — enough to offset the administration’s proposed tax increases in the latest fiscal-cliff negotiations.

US non-financial corporations are sitting on $1.74 trillion in cash and other liquid instruments at the end of the third quarter, according to the Federal Reserve. And that’s $44 billion more than just three months earlier.

With such a reserve fund, companies may finally be coming to their fiscal senses.

A separate survey by Korn/Ferry Institute shows that 20 percent of executives polled are planning to spend between $100 and $200 on non-expensed business-related gifts to staff this year, up from 15 percent a year ago; 17 percent planned between $200 and $300, up from 14 percent; and a substantial 27 percent plan to spend more than $300, almost the same as the year before.

Grossich says his Hospitality Holdings chain has seen a 20 percent rise in overall holiday business spending since last year.

“We are pretty much sold out, almost every night, and occupancy is very strong,” Stuart Foster, vice president of marketing for Hilton Luxury Brands Worldwide, said, referring to the group’s Waldorf Astoria on Park Avenue. “That business is driven by people having corporate events and holiday parties — and inviting out-of-town guests who then stay at the Waldorf.”

For many who work on Wall Street and are anticipating a sharp decline in the bonus pool, this year will see a more subdued party season. “It seems like it is going to be a quieter Christmas-party scene,” said David Vroubel, an adviser at Tejas Securities Group in New York. “The year of the big parties might be behind us.”

Foley’s NY Pub and Restaurant on West 33rd Street said it is booked solid for Christmas and holiday parties for the next two weeks. But that might have more to do with Wall Street brokers and traders who are trimming back. “We see more of them when things are down, as we tend to be cheaper than the big splashes they usually throw,” said owner Shaun Clancy.

Grossich at Hospitality Holdings is not worried. “There’ll be more Town Cars dropping by,” he said. “It’s a return to the busier party scene this year.”