The Rezidor Hotel Group announces the opening of five hotels (1,300 rooms) and signing of 10 hotels (2,300 rooms) in the Second Quarter of 2012 which is ahead of last year’s quarterly results.

The Q2 new openings include two stunning flagship resorts in Corsica and Gran Canaria, further strengthening the group’s resort portfolio which now features almost 50 properties and 13,000 rooms across Europe, the Middle East & Africa. ‘‘I am also pleased to announce the signing of two new-build hotels in East London with a total of 380 rooms,’’ says Puneet Chhatwal, Executive Vice President and Chief Development Officer of The Rezidor Hotel Group. ‘‘London is a strategically important, mega-market for Rezidor. We aim to further grow in-depth of this market through our mid-market hotel brand, Park Inn by Radisson. Rezidor aims to have more than 10 Park Inn hotels in the Greater London area in the next three to four years.’’ adds Chhatwal.

The group’s prime growth focus, however, remains on the emerging markets. ‘‘We want to go deeper in the fast developing business hubs of Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, United Arab Emirates, Turkey and South Africa,’’ explains Chhatwal. ‘‘Hotels in these markets will, most likely, be new built - so we will see less conversions going forward. However, there is a huge potential of taking over partially unfinished hotel projects in mature markets: this year alone, we signed Park Inn by Radisson Odintsovo in Moscow, a Radisson Blu Hotel in Kyiv Podil and a Park Inn in Glasgow City Centre, which are all scheduled to open within this year, signalling the big potential take-over of available hybrids of conversions and new constructions,’’ said Chhatwal.

Second quarter saw the opening of the following hotels, all under management and franchise contracts, the 5th consecutive quarter without any leased hotel opening which lays the foundation of profitable growth:
Radisson Blu Hotel, Uppsala, Sweden 185 rooms
Park Inn by Radisson Donetsk, Ukraine 171 rooms
Radisson Blu Resort, Gran Canaria, Spain 189 rooms
Radisson Blu Resort & Spa, Ajaccio Bay, Corsica, France 170 rooms
Radisson Blu Hotel, Doha, Qatar 583 rooms

In line with the group’s Route 2015 strategy to uplift the EBITDA margin by 6-8 percentage points by 2015 Rezidor has successfully converted a committed contract in Rome to a Franchise contract, securing more profitable income streams in the years ahead and reducing its risk exposure. The group also extended a favourable lease in the Nordics, the Radisson Blu Hotel in Trondheim.

Rezidor hosts one of the strongest pipelines in the industry in the upscale and mid-market segment. Currently it features 22,000 rooms all with managed or franchised contracts; all due to open within the next three to four years. It represents ca. 30% of the number of rooms currently in operation (as compared to the industry average of ca. 20%). Once the pipeline is operational, Rezidor’s EBITDA margin will increase by 2-2.5 percentage points, contributing to the 12% target over a business cycle.

‘‘Despite the economic turbulence in the eurozone, Rezidor is confidently progressing towards achieving its 2012 target of signings and new hotel openings,’’ declares Chhatwal. Rezidor is soon to open some key flagships in 2012, i.e. Radisson Blu Hotel Lusaka in Zambia; Park Inn by Radisson Lille in France; Park Inn by Radisson Budapest in Hungary and Radisson Blu Congress and Resort Hotel, Sochi in Russia.

By the end of June 2012, Rezidor operated 332 hotels and 72,900 rooms in 54 countries across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The group’s portfolio features additional 100 hotels and 22,000 rooms in the pipeline.