Easyhotel : Acquisition of property in Milton Keynes

RNS Number : 9860C easyHotel PLC

26 January 2018

26 January 2018 easyHotel plc easyHotel plc

("easyHotel", "the Group" or "the Company")

Acquisition of property in Milton Keynes for new easyHotel

Committed owned hotel pipeline increased to 941 rooms

easyHotel Milton Keynes

easyHotel plc, the owner, developer and operator of super budget branded hotels, today announces that it has condi onally acquired a 125-year leasehold of part of Norfolk House on Silbury Boulevard, a central site in Milton Keynes. The development has already received planning permission and the acquisi on will be completed subject to planning being finalised at the end of the judicial review period.

Norfolk House is centrally located in the town centre, just 200m from the main shopping centre and just 0.3 miles from The Hub Milton Keynes, a major leisure scheme. The Group intends to convert its part of the building into a 124-bedroom hotel, which is expected to open by mid-2019 at a total cost of approximately £8.7 million.

Milton Keynes is the largest of the "New Towns" built in the UK and celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. The town has been developed into a hub for businesses and has strong rail and motorway links as well as being in close proximity to Luton Interna onal Airport. Major leisure des na ons nearby include Bletchley Park, Woburn Safari park, Gulliver's Theme Park, the Milton Keynes bowl and Snozone, the UK's first indoor ski centre.

Portfolio update - committed pipeline increased to 941 rooms

The Group opened its new hotel in Newcastle in December 2017 on me and on budget. Whilst the hotel has only been open for a few weeks the Board is pleased to see this hotel trading in line with the strong performance of the hotels opened during the last financial year.

Following the opening of its Newcastle hotel, the Group currently owns seven hotels comprising 702 rooms, and it has a further 19 franchised hotels with 1,641 rooms.

The Group has a commi>ed pipeline of seven owned hotels comprising 941 rooms. Construc on of hotels in Barcelona, Leeds, Sheffield and Ipswich has commenced and the 517 rooms should all open in the summer of 2018.

The planned hotel openings during the current financial year ending 30 September 2018 and beyond are expected to make a significant contribution to system sales, revenue and adjusted EBITDA going forward.

Commenting, Guy Parsons, CEO of easyHotel plc said:

"We are delighted to have secured this site in Milton Keynes. Now in its 50 year, the town is home to many interna onal business, has the third highest business start-up rate of any UK city and boasts an impressive range of shopping and leisure facilities.

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"This acquisi on is part of our ongoing strategy of offering comfortable, affordable accommoda on in key tourist and business loca ons in the UK and interna onally, and this completes the deployment of funds from our 2016 equity fundraising and bank loan.

"We con nue to see a good number of a>rac ve poten al development opportuni es, both in the UK and Europe to further accelerate the Group's growth. These are both larger and more numerous than we had originally an cipated.

Consequently, the Board is considering its finance op ons, which may include new equity and debt, to fund more hotels."

Enquiries: easyHotel plc

Guy Parsons, Chief Executive Officer	www.easyhotel.com
Marc Vieilledent, Chief Financial Officer	http://ir.easyhotel.com
Investec (Nominated Adviser and Broker)	[phone]
David Anderson

Houston PR (Financial PR)

[phone]

Kate Hoare

Notes to Editors:

www.easyhotel.comhttp://ir.easyhotel.com

easyHotel is the owner, developer, operator and franchisor of branded hotels. Its strategy is to target the "super budget" segment of the hotel industry by marketing "clean, comfortable and safe" hotel rooms to its customers.

Operating hotels

easyHotel's seven owned hotels currently comprise 702 rooms, and it has a further 19 franchised hotels with 1,641 rooms.

Owned hotels:

Old Street (London), Glasgow, Croydon, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle*.

Franchise locations:

Belgium (Brussels), Bulgaria (Sofia), Germany (Berlin, Frankfurt), Hungary (Budapest), The Netherlands (Amsterdam: City, Arena & Zaandam, Ro>erdam, The Hague), Switzerland (Basel, Zurich), UAE (Dubai), United Kingdom (Edinburgh, London Heathrow, Central London, Luton).

Hotel development pipeline

The Company's committed development pipeline of owned and franchised hotels currently consists of:

Owned hotels:

United Kingdom (Ipswich, Sheffield, Leeds), Spain (Barcelona) Subject to planning consent: United Kingdom (Cardiff, Milton Keynes and Oxford*).

Franchise hotels:

UAE (Dubai), Germany (Bernkastel-Kues), Portugal (Lisbon), Turkey (Istanbul), UK (Belfast, Reading), Iran, Sri Lanka, Netherlands (The Hague Scheveningen Beach, Maastricht).

*Hotels under an operating lease.

This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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