23rd Oct 2006 08:46
All Nippon Airways Co Ld23 October 2006 ANA AND IHG ANNOUNCE JOINT VENTURE TO CREATE JAPAN'S LEADING HOTEL GROUP TOKYO October 23, 2006 - All Nippon Airways (ANA) and InterContinental HotelsGroup (IHG) today announced the signing of a hotel operating joint venture tocreate the leading hotel operating company in Japan. The joint venture - to be named IHG ANA Hotels Group Japan - will officiallycommence on 1 December 2006. IHG was selected as ANA's partner after a highlycompetitive process. The strength of IHG's family of brands, robust growthpipeline, international outlook and established operating systems made it thepreferred partner for ANA, while ANA's reputation for high quality standardsand service made it an attractive partner for IHG. Both companies sharecorporate values and strategic objectives, including a focus on China, whichwill help create a strong platform for a successful long-term partnership. ANA will sign new management contracts with IHG ANA Hotels Group Japan for its13 owned and leased hotels (4,943 rooms). These hotels will over time re-brandto one of the three co-brands created for Japan - ANA-InterContinental,ANA-Crowne Plaza and ANA-Holiday Inn. The flagship ANA Hotel Tokyo will be thefirst to be co-branded in April 2007 as the ANA-InterContinental Tokyo. Theremaining 12 hotels will be co-branded over the following 18 months. In addition, the joint venture will continue to operate ANA Hotels & Resorts' other 18 hotels (4,127 rooms) under management contracts, franchise agreementsand marketing referral agreements for third party owners, who will also beoffered the opportunity to enjoy the benefits of co-branding. IHG currentlyoperates 11 hotels in Japan (3,100 rooms), which, combined with IHG ANA HotelsGroup Japan's 31 hotels, gives a combined estate of 42 hotels with more than12,000 rooms. ANA Hotels & Resorts' 500,000 ANA Hotel Members will be given the opportunityto become members of IHG's Priority Club Rewards, which is the world's largesthotel loyalty programme with more than 28 million members worldwide. Inaddition, ANA will sign up as Priority Club Rewards' global airline partner.With effect from 1 November, ANA Mileage Club members will be able to startearning air miles when staying at IHG hotels worldwide. For the further information, please refer to the attached explanation.http://www.ana.co.jp/eng/aboutana/corporate/ir/pdf/lse/lse_061023-2.pdf For further information please contact: ANA Public RelationsRob HendersonTel:+81 3 6735 1116E-mail: [email protected] IHG Public RelationsCharles YapTel: +65 9829 0310E-mail: [email protected] Hill & Knowlton JapanMinoru KoshidaTel: +81 3 5768 8400 E-mail:[email protected] This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
InterContinental Hotels