The Rezidor Hotel Group signed four new hotels with over 1,200 rooms and opened five new hotels with 1,100 rooms in the fourth quarter of 2012. Year-to-date, the group added 30 hotels with 7,100 rooms to its pipeline and opened 18 hotels featuring 4,000 rooms. Two franchised hotels with 250 rooms left the system in Q4. A total of five hotels and 700 rooms left the system in 2012, resulting in net openings of 3,200 rooms.

Rezidor continues to signal its commitment to profitable asset-light growth with all hotel openings and signings in 2012 under management and franchise contracts. At the end of 2012, Rezidor’s operating portfolio consists of 338 hotels with 74,000 rooms in 56 countries across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The group’s portfolio features an additional 100 hotels and 22,000 rooms in the pipeline.

The fourth quarter of 2012 hotel openings are in mature markets of France (Lille and Nantes) and key cities in emerging markets such as Kiev, Budapest and

Sochi. New hotel openings include:
*  Radisson Blu Hotel, Kyiv Podil, Ukraine 164 rooms
*  Radisson Blu Hotel, Nantes, France 142 rooms
*  Radisson Blu Resort & Congress Centre, Sochi, Russia 508 rooms
*  Park Inn by Radisson Lille Grand Stade, France 127 rooms
*  Park Inn by Radisson Budapest, Hungary 138 rooms

Signings in the fourth quarter 2012 included projects in mature markets such as the Park Inn by Radisson Amsterdam and two conversions under the Radisson Blu brand in Germany: Dortmund and Bremen. “Hotel conversions are an important part of our growth strategy, adding scale and contributing to our bottom line immediately,” says Elie Younes, Senior Vice President & Head of Group Development. These additions will ideally complement Rezidor’s already existing strong network in one of our key markets”, adds Younes. 80% of the total signings in 2012 were in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, clearly signalling the group’s focus on emerging markets.

Asset & Contract Management continues to be another strategic priority for Rezidor and as a part of this ongoing effort, in October 2012, the group announced the exit from seven unprofitable lease agreements in France. These hotels will be operated by Rezidor under management agreements going forward. In January 2013, the group also announced the conversion of two lease agreements into franchise agreements for the Park Inn by Radisson Malmö and the Park Inn by Radisson Hammarby Sjöstad in Sweden. Together, the two asset management deals represent a positive effect of 0.5% on the group’s EBITDA margin going forward.

“These very important asset management transactions are supporting our Route 2015 goal to lift Rezidor’s EBITDA margin by 6-8 percentage points by 2015. It is of fundamental importance to the group to further optimise our portfolio of leased hotels, secure more profitable income streams through our asset-light expansion, and reduce the leverage of the company”, commented Wolfgang M. Neumann, President & CEO at Rezidor.”