Completion of placing of Arenaturist shares

RNS Number : 8420W

PPHE Hotel Group Limited

29 April 2016

 

29 April 2016

PPHE Hotel Group Limited

PPHE Hotel Group announces completion of placing of Arenaturist shares

PPHE Hotel Group Limited (the Company), which together with its subsidiaries (the Group) owns, leases, develops, operates and franchises full service upscale and lifestyle hotels in major gateway cities and regional centres, predominantly in Europe, is pleased to announce that it has today completed the placing of 12% of the share capital of Arenaturist d.d. (Arenaturist) for HRK 74.6 million (£7.8 million).

On 1 March 2016, the Company announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Euro Sea Hotels N.V. (Euro Sea), had entered into an agreement to acquire the remaining 80% interest, which it did not then own, in its joint venture in Croatia (the Acquisition Agreement). The Acquisition Agreement completed on 13 April 2016.

The joint venture indirectly owned 74.15% of the issued share capital of Arenaturist a Croatian public company whose shares are traded on the Zagreb Stock Exchange. As a result of the completion of the Acquisition Agreement, the Company was required to make a mandatory takeover offer (the Offer) for the outstanding share capital of Arenaturist. The Offer was announced on 29 March 2016 and closed on 27 April 2016.

The announcement on 1 March disclosed that the Group had entered into share sale agreements, conditional on completion of the Offer, with: Allianz ZB d.o.o. (AZ) and PBZ CROATIA OSIGURANJE d.d. (PBZ). The share sale agreements have completed and the Group has sold 196,425 shares of Arenaturist (9%) to AZ and 65,475 shares of Arenaturist to PBZCO (3%). As a result the Group now owns 1,356,363 shares of Arenaturist, equivalent to 62.15% of the issued share capital of Arenaturist.

The Company will announce the result of the Offer and how many shares of Arenaturist the Group acquired pursuant to the Offer in the near future.

Commenting on the transaction Boris Ivesha, Chairman of PPHE Hotel Group and Arenaturist, stated:

"We welcome AZ and PBZ, two of Croatia's largest institutional investors, as shareholders in Arenaturist. Their investments confirm our belief in the significant opportunities for Arenaturist and they share our plans to make it one of the most exciting Croatian leisure companies traded on the Zagreb Stock Exchange.''

A copy of the full takeover documentation, in Croatian, is available from the Zagreb Stock Exchange website www.zse.hr.

Enquiries:

PPHE Hotel Group Limited
Boris Ivesha, President & Chief Executive Officer	Tel: [phone]
Chen Moravsky, Deputy Chief Executive Officer & Chief Financial Officer	Tel: [phone]
Hudson Sandler  - UK press enquiries	Tel: [phone]
Wendy Baker / Katie Matthews Madison Consulting - Croatian press enquiries Mladen Hrgarek / Svebor Gretic	Tel: [phone]

Notes to editors

PPHE Hotel Group Limited is a Guernsey registered company and through its subsidiaries, jointly controlled entities and associates, owns, leases, operates, franchises and develops full service upscale and lifestyle hotels in major gateway cities and regional centres, predominantly in Europe.

The majority of PPHE Hotel Group's hotels operate under two distinct brands, Park Plaza^® Hotels & Resorts and art'otel^®. PPHE Hotel Group has an exclusive licence from Carlson, a global privately held hospitality and travel company, to develop and operate Park Plaza^® Hotels & Resorts in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The art'otel^® brand is fully owned by PPHE Hotel Group.

PPHE Hotel Group has a majority ownership interest in the Arenaturist group, one of Croatia's leading hospitality companies.

The portfolio of owned, leased, managed and franchised hotels comprises 38 hotels in operation offering a total of more than 8,300 rooms. The development pipeline includes five new hotel projects and one hotel extension and reconfiguration. These developments are expected to add nearly 1,100 rooms to our portfolio by the end of 2016 and an additional 500 rooms by the end of 2019.

 

Our Company:

www.pphe.com

Our Hotel Brands:

www.parkplaza.com

www.artotels.com

www.arenaturist.com

For images and logos visit www.vfmii.com/parkplaza

Forward-looking statements

This trading statement may contain certain "forward-looking statements' which reflect the Company's and/or the Directors' current views with respect to financial performance, business strategy and future plans, both with respect to the group and the sectors and industries in which the group operates. Statements which include the words "expects", "intends", "plans", "believes", "projects", "anticipates", "will", "targets", "aims", "may", "would", "could", "continue" and similar statements are of a future or forward-looking nature. All forward-looking statements address matters that involve risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, there are or will be important factors that could cause the group's actual results to differ materially from those indicated in these statements. Any forward-looking statements in this interim management statement reflect the group's current views with respect to future events and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions relating to the group's operations, results of operations and growth strategy. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this interim management statement. Subject to any legal or regulatory obligations, the Company undertakes no obligation publicly to update or review any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to the group or individuals acting on behalf of the group are expressly qualified in their entirety by this paragraph. Nothing in this publication should be considered as a profit forecast.

 

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