9th Mar 2006 10:00
Whitbread PLC09 March 2006 9 March 2006 WHITBREAD ACQUIRES SEVEN HOLIDAY INN HOTELS TO CONVERT TO PREMIER TRAVEL INN BRAND Whitbread PLC has today entered into an agreement to acquire the business andassets of seven Holiday Inn branded hotels from wholly owned subsidiaries of LRGAcquisition Limited for a total consideration of £34.5 million. The seven hotels (1021 rooms) will be converted to Premier Travel Inn, recentlyrated the 'Most Improved Brand of the Year' by the BDRC British Hotel GuestSurvey. The acquisition underlines the brand's leading position in the UK'sbudget hotel sector with over 31,000 rooms and 474 hotels across the UK, 30 ofwhich are located in Central London. Alan Parker, Chief Executive, Whitbread PLC said: "Last week we announced a newtarget of 45,000 rooms in the UK by 2010. Today's announcement marks asignificant step towards this target and injects further pace into our expansionplans. We see acquisition and conversion opportunities such as this as a richseam to exploit for future growth." The seven hotels will be transformed over the course of the next six months witha refurbishment programme. Patrick Dempsey, Managing Director of Premier Travel Inn, said:" As a result ofthe strength of our product and our value-for-money price proposition, PremierTravel Inn continues significantly to outperform the competition and morecustomers choose to stay with us than any other hotel brand in the UK. Nowthey'll have even more Premier Travel Inns where they can get a good night'ssleep guaranteed." The seven sites are located at: South Mimms (142 rooms)London Hampstead (143 rooms)Peterborough (95 rooms)Leicester South West (170 rooms)Carlisle (127 rooms)Newcastle City Centre (194 rooms)Cardiff North (150 rooms) In respect of Cardiff and Carlisle the acquisitions are subject to respectivelandlord's consent to assign. Completion of all seven hotels is expected to takeplace over the next two months. Ends For more information please contact: Investor Relations:Christopher Rogers, Whitbread PLC +44 (0) 20 7806 4591 Press Contacts:Anna Glover, Whitbread PLC +44 (0) 1582 844 439Andrew Grant, Tulchan +44 (0) 20 7353 4200 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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