Rezidor announced the signing of nine new hotels featuring more than 2,000 rooms and the opening of four new hotels with more than 600 rooms in the third quarter of 2012. Year-to-date, the group added 26 hotels with 5,900 rooms to its pipeline and opened 13 hotels featuring 2,900 rooms.

As a crucial part of the Route 2015 target -- a set of ambitious targets set by the company -- Rezidor continuous to signal its commitment to asset-light growth strategy focusing on profitable growth through management and franchise contracts in emerging markets. Almost all openings and signings in the third quarter were fee-based and in the emerging markets of Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

The third-quarter openings include two new-build hotels in sub-Saharan Africa, where there is a shortage of internationally branded hotel accommodations, including Radisson Blu Hotel, Lusaka in Zambia and Park Inn by Radisson, Téte in Mozambique. Rezidor has currently 22 hotels (5,400 rooms) in operation and another 27 hotels (5,600 rooms) in the pipeline in Africa. The two hotels are under management and franchise contracts.

The third quarter also saw the opening of 252-room Radisson Blu Resort, Bukovel, Ukraine; and the 121-room Park Inn by Radisson, Odintsovo Moscow, Russia. Both hotels are also under management and franchise contracts.

As part of the company’s ongoing efforts in asset and contract management, Rezidor also successfully completed the extension of a portfolio of six management agreements. The total portfolio features 1,400 rooms, including five Radisson Blu hotels in the Middle East and one Park Inn in France. These hotels represent a significant brand presence in the region and are of strategic importance to Rezidor.

Rezidor has also renewed an important lease agreement for the Radisson Blu SkyCity Hotel, Stockholm-Arlanda Airport, confirming the strategy to secure profitable leases. This extension also includes the operation of the adjacent conference center and addition of 30 new rooms to the hotel inventory. With this signing, all of Rezidor’s profitable leases with initial expiration before 2015 have now been successfully extended.

In September, Rezidor also signed a strategic alliance agreement with Formosa International Hotels Corporation (FIH) to develop hotels under the Regent Hotels & Resorts brand in the Europe Middle East and Africa region with exclusive rights for the Middle East, Africa, Russia, Commonwealth of Independent States and Baltics. The alliance broadens Rezidor’s brand scape to feature luxury segment, in addition to upper up-scale (Radisson Blu), mid-market (Park Inn by Radisson) and fashion hotel segment (Hotel Missoni).

The continued momentum of openings and signings, and strategic partnerships are helping Rezidor to deliver firmly on its Route 2015 target of uplifting the earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization margin by 6 to 8 percentage points by 2015. By the end of September, Rezidor operated 335 hotels with 73,200 rooms in 56 countries across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The group’s portfolio features additional 100-plus hotels and 21,800 rooms in the pipeline.