IHG Continues to Expand in Germany: Group Signs New Franchise Agreement

LONDON, December 13, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

- Contract for five hotels with Arcadia Hotelbetriebs GmbH Stuttgart

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), one of the world's largest hotel companies, has signed a franchise agreement with Arcadia Hotelbetriebs GmbH Stuttgart to develop five hotels in Germany and Austria, continuing the growth of its Holiday Inn Express brand. The new agreement with Arcadia is IHG's fifth multi-development agreement with a partner in Germany.

IHG's Associate Vice President Development Germany, Martin Bowen, said: "The Holiday Inn brand family is an important growth driver for us in Germany. With Arcadia as one of our new strategic partners we are even better placed to drive our growth in one of our key markets. Our steady growth shows that we offer hotel developers strong brands and a recipe for success."

The first hotel to open as part of the new agreement with Arcadia will be the Holiday Inn Express in Osnabrück. The new build hotel is in a central location at the corner of Niedersachsenstrasse and Pottgraben near the main railroad station. The hotel is scheduled to open in the first half of 2014 and features 152 rooms and two conference rooms.

Arcadia already has franchise agreements in place with IHG for the Holiday Inn München Süd, the Holiday Inn Express Gütersloh, and the Holiday Inn Salzburg.

Gerhard Finster, proprietor and general manager of Arcadia Hotelbetriebs GmbH Stuttgart, said: "We are delighted about the longstanding cooperation with one of the world's leading hotel groups. This new agreement strengthens our position and paves the way for further expansion."

IHG has 69* hotels in Germany, of which 56 belong to the Holiday Inn brand family. The company has 14* hotels in the pipeline in Germany.

Notes to Editors:

IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) [LON:IHG, NYSE:IHG (ADRs)] is a global organisation with nine hotel brands including InterContinental® Hotels & Resorts, Hotel Indigo®, Crowne Plaza® Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn® Hotels and Resorts, Holiday Inn Express®, Staybridge Suites®, Candlewood Suites®, EVEN™ Hotels and HUALUXE™ Hotels & Resorts. IHG also manages Priority Club® Rewards, the world's first and largest hotel loyalty programme with over 69 million members worldwide.

IHG franchises, leases, manages or owns over 4,500 hotels and more than 672,000 guest rooms in nearly 100 countries and territories. With more than 1,000 hotels in its development pipeline, IHG expects to recruit around 90,000 people into additional roles across its estate over the next few years.

InterContinental Hotels Group PLC is the Group's holding company and is incorporated in Great Britain and registered in England and Wales.

Visit http://www.ihg.com for hotel information and reservations and http://www.priorityclub.com for more on Priority Club Rewards. For our latest news, visit http://www.ihg.com/media, http://www.twitter.com/ihg, http://www.facebook.com/ihg or http://www.youtube.com/ihgplc.

*Figures as at IHG's Q3 results, ending 30 Sept 2012

SOURCE IHG