The Rezidor Hotel Group has signed eight agreements for new hotels. Totaling 1,400 rooms in Q3 of this year, five of these signings represent projects in Saudi Arabia, a key focus country for Rezidor.
“Saudi Arabia has experienced continuous economic growth and offers considerable potential for our core brands Radisson Blu and Park Inn by Radisson,” says Wolfgang M. Neumann, president and CEO at Rezidor. “Besides Saudi Arabia, the group’s focus country list includes Russia, Nigeria, and Turkey. In line with our development strategy targeting a profitable, sustainable, and asset-light growth in emerging markets and selected focus countries, we aim to further strengthen our presence in Saudi Arabia together with powerful regional partners.”
Rezidor has also added a new country to its portfolio and signed the first Radisson Blu Hotel in Algiers, Algeria. The 137-room property is scheduled to debut in Q1 of 2015. In Northern Africa, Rezidor additionally opened the 274-room Radisson Blu Resort & Thalasso Hammamet in Tunisia in Q3 of this year.
In the Nordic regions, the group secured 20 years extensions for two hotels: the Radisson Blu Scandinavia Hotel Copenhagen and the Radisson Blu Royal Copenhagen, which was Rezidor’s first hotel and crafted by Danish designer Arne Jacobsen. The Radisson Blu SkyCity Hotel at Stockholm’s Arlanda Airport has added 30 guestrooms and 36 meeting rooms, while the renovation of the Radisson Blu Royal Garden Hotel, Trondheim is proceeding and is scheduled to be complete in mid 2014.
“Such results show our continued success in constantly upgrading our leased hotels and improving the financial performance⎯⎯a core element of our Route 2015 turnaround program,” adds Neumann. Through Route 2015, Rezidor aims to reach an EBITDA margin increase of 6-8 percent by the 2015. In 2012, the program already led to an EBITDA margin impact of 2.1 percent.
