Purchase of Shares

RNS Number : 9003Q

Park Plaza Hotels Limited

26 October 2011

Park Plaza Hotels Limited

("Park Plaza" or the "Company")

Purchase of Shares

Acquisition

In accordance with DTR 5.6.1A, Park Plaza announces that it has today purchased 800,000 of its own ordinary shares of no par value ("Shares") (representing 1.91% of the Company's voting rights immediately prior to such purchase) at a price of 227.5p per Share (the "Buy-back").

As at today's date, Park Plaza's total issued share capital is 42,677,292 Shares. As a result of the Buy-back, a further 800,000 shares are held in treasury, making the total number of shares now held in treasury 1,662,000 Shares.

Therefore, the total number of voting rights in Park Plaza is now 41,015,292.

The above figure of voting rights of 41,015,292 should be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, Park Plaza under the FSA's Disclosure and Transparency Rules.

Takeover Code

The Red Sea group (which is ultimately controlled by Mr Eli Papouchado, the Company's Chairman, acting in his capacity as trustee of an endowment established for the benefit of members of his family) was immediately prior to the Buy-back interested in 44.67 per cent. of the Company. As a result of the Buy-back, the Red Sea group (together with Mr Papouchado) is subject to Note 4 on Rule 37.1 of the City Code on Takeovers and Mergers (the "Code"), as it holds over 30% but less than 50% of the Company's Shares. The Company has sought the consent of the Takeover Panel, which has waived the obligation for the Red Sea group and Mr Papouchado and his connected parties to make an offer under Rule 9 of the Code for the remaining issued share capital of the Company.

Contacts:

Park Plaza Hotels Limited	+31 (0) 20 717 8603
Chen Moravsky, Chief Financial Officer

Hudson Sandler	+44 (0) 20 7796 4133
Wendy Baker / Kate Hough

Notes to Editors

About Park Plaza:

Park Plaza Hotels Limited owns, leases, develops, manages and franchises primarily full service four-star, four-star deluxe and contemporary lifestyle hotels in major gateway cities and regional centres primarily in Europe. The majority of the Group's hotels operate under the Park Plaza Hotels & Resorts brand (part of Carlson), over which the Group has exclusive rights in 56 countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, or art'otel, a brand which Park Plaza fully owns.

Through its strategic partnership with Carlson, one of the world's largest travel and hospitality companies, Park Plaza has access to Carlson's powerful reservation and distribution system, airline partnerships with 22 airlines, loyalty programmes such as Club Carlson^SM for guests and look to book^® for travel agents and cross-selling opportunities.

The Group currently has 25 Park Plaza hotels and art'otels, with 5,447 rooms in operation. New projects under development include Park Plaza Nuremberg (2013), art'otel amsterdam (2012), a 61-room extension of art'otel berlin city center west (2012) and art'otel london hoxton (2013).

Park Plaza also part owns Arenaturist, one of Croatia's leading hospitality companies, and operates 8 hotels and 5 apartment complexes (with a total of 2,868 rooms) and 7 campsites in Istria, Croatia.

The Red Sea group (which is ultimately controlled by Mr Eli Papouchado, the Company's Chairman, acting in his capacity as trustee of an endowment established for the benefit of members of his family) and Molteno Limited (in which Mr Boris Ivesha, the Company's CEO, is interested) are deemed to be acting in concert for the purposes of Rule 9 of the Code. Together they hold more than 50% of Park Plaza's voting rights and (for so long as they continue to be treated as acting in concert) may accordingly increase their aggregate interest in Shares without incurring any obligation under Rule 9 to make a general offer, although individual members of the concert party will not be able to increase their percentage interest in shares through or between a Rule 9 threshold without Takeover Panel consent.

Park Plaza's shares are admitted to trading on the main market of the London Stock Exchange (Standard Listing).