Rezidor marks a strong start of 2008
The Rezidor Hotel Group's Financial Report January - March 2008
“The first quarter of 2008 has been yet another strong quarter for Rezidor.
Adjusted for the estimated negative effect of Easter falling in March, we
continue to show a robust development of both revenue and EBITDA, compared to
the first quarter of last year. As Rezidor's revenue is strongly driven by
business guests in the Nordics and the rest of Western Europe we were heavily
impacted by the Easter holidays, as foreseen, says Kurt Ritter, President & CEO
of Rezidor.
Rezidor's markets are in Western and Northern Europe as well as the emerging
markets in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, where the economic activity has
been relatively strong. Despite slowing activity in the US and fear of a global
slow-down, the hotel industry in our markets continued to grow in the beginning
of the year.
“In order to secure a profitable growth we continue to focus on growing the
number of rooms on fee based contracts. In the first quarter of this year, we
opened 1,000 new rooms; 100% of these were under managed or franchised fee-based
contracts. We also added close to 3,000 new rooms to our contracted pipeline,
mainly managed or franchised”, Ritter continues.
“We are aware of the turmoil on the financial markets and the continued
uncertainties surrounding the global economy, which make it difficult to predict
the market outlook for 2008. We are confident of achieving our target of adding
20,000 rooms to operations from 2007 to year-end 2009, and believe that the
ongoing shift in our business model driven by more fee based revenue will
continue to support our EBITDA margin target”, summarises Kurt Ritter.
For further information, please contact:
The Rezidor Hotel Group
Per Blixt, Senior Vice President Investor Relations & Corporate Communications,
Tel. +32 2 702 9224, Per.Blixt@Rezidor.com
About the Rezidor Hotel Group:
The Rezidor Hotel Group is one of the fastest growing hotel companies in the
world. The group features a portfolio of 333 hotels in operation and under
development with more than 68.000 rooms in 51 countries.
Rezidor operates the brands Radisson SAS Hotels & Resorts, Regent Hotels &
Resorts, Park Inn and Country Inns & Suites in Europe, Middle East and Africa,
along with the goldpoints plusSM loyalty programme for frequent hotel guests.
Rezidor has signed a worldwide license agreement with the Italian fashion house
Missoni, in order to develop and operate a lifestyle hotel brand of the same
name: Hotel Missoni.
In November 2006, Rezidor was listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. With 42%,
Carlson Companies is the main shareholder.
The Corporate Office of the Rezidor Hotel Group is based in Brussels, Belgium.
For more information on Rezidor, visit www.rezidor.com.
