Rezidor announces the signing of nine new hotels featuring over 2,000 rooms and opening of four new hotels with more than 600 rooms in the third quarter of 2012. Year-to-date, the group added 26 hotels with 5,900 rooms to its pipeline and opened 13 hotels featuring 2,900 rooms.
As a crucial part of the Route 2015 target, Rezidor continuous to signal its commitment to asset-light growth strategy focusing on profitable growth through management and franchise contracts in emerging markets. Almost all openings and signings in the third quarter were fee-based and in the emerging markets of Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
The third quarter new openings include two new-build hotels in sub-Saharan Africa, where there is a shortage of internationally branded hotel accommodation, including Radisson Blu Hotel, Lusaka in Zambia and Park Inn by Radisson, T?te in Mozambiqe. Rezidor has currently 22 hotels (5,400 rooms) in operation and another 27 hotels (5,600 rooms) in the pipeline in Africa.
The third quarter saw the opening of the following hotels, all under management and franchise contracts:
| Park Inn by Radisson, Tete, Mozambique | 117 rooms |
| Radisson Blu Resort, Bukovel, Ukraine | 252 rooms |
| Park Inn by Radisson, Odintsovo Moscow, Russia | 121 rooms |
| Radisson Blu Hotel, Lusaka, Zambia | 142 rooms |
As part of the company?s ongoing efforts in Asset & Contract Management, Rezidor also successfully completed the extension of a portfolio of six management agreements. The total portfolio features 1,400 rooms, including five Radisson Blu hotels in the Middle East and one Park Inn in France. These hotels represent a significant brand presence in the region and are of strategic importance to Rezidor.
Rezidor has also renewed an important lease agreement for the Radisson Blu SkyCity Hotel, Stockholm-Arlanda Airport, confirming the strategy to secure profitable leases. This extension also includes the operation of the adjacent conference centre and addition of 30 new rooms to the hotel inventory. With this signing, all of Rezidor?s profitable leases with initial expiration before 2015 have now been successfully extended.
In September 2012, Rezidor also signed a Strategic Alliance Agreement with Formosa International Hotels Corporation (FIH), to develop hotels under the Regent Hotels & Resorts brand in the EMEA region with exclusive rights for the Middle East, Africa, Russia, CIS and Baltics. This alliance broadens Rezidor?s brand scape to feature luxury segment, in addition to upper up-scale (Radisson Blu), mid-market (Park Inn by Radisson) and fashion hotel segment (Hotel Missoni).
The continued momentum of openings and signings, and strategic partnerships are helping Rezidor to deliver firmly on its Route 2015 target of uplifting the EBITDA margin by 6-8 percentage points by 2015. By the end of September 2012, Rezidor operated 335 hotels with 73,200 rooms in 56 countries across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The group?s portfolio features additional 100+ hotels and 21,800 rooms in the pipeline.