| Tue 3 Apr 2012, 8:00 | | LAF - Lonrho PLC - Lonrho announces first easyHotel in Africa to open in |
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LAF
LOLAF
LAF - Lonrho PLC - Lonrho announces first easyHotel in Africa to open in
Johannesburg
LONRHO PLC
(Incorporated and registered in England and Wales)
(Registration number 2805337)
(Share code: LAF; ISIN number: GB0002568813)
("Lonrho" or "the Company")
LONRHO ANNOUNCES FIRST EASYHOTEL IN AFRICA TO OPEN IN JOHANNESBURG
Lonrho Plc is delighted to announce that, under its exclusive franchise
agreement with Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou`s easyGroup, the first easyHotel.com
branded hotel is scheduled to open by the end of the year at the historic former
Stuttafords Department Store building in the Johannesburg Central Business
District ("CBD") in South Africa.
The easyHotel.com Rissik Street is the first hotel under the exclusive 20 year
master franchise agreement ("MFA") that Lonrho enjoys with easyHotel. Together,
easyHotel and Lonrho are committed to establishing an easyHotel network across
Africa. The MFA provides Lonrho with the exclusive rights to the easyHotel brand
in Africa and sets out an agreed opening schedule for fifty properties by 2016.
Opening its first easyHotel.com at the heart of the Johannesburg, the commercial
capital of South Africa, demonstrates Lonrho Budget Hotels` corporate objective
of operating hotels in Africa`s high demand, high growth destinations.
easyHotel will be the first trans-continental hotel brand in Africa specifically
designed to be accessible to many, not a select few. easyHotel`s unique low-cost
business model permits the customer to enjoy an international standard bedroom
at a highly competitive price. The "easy" brand is one of the world`s most
recognised and successful value for money brands and easyHotel.com Rissik Street
will be built and operated to easyGroup`s exacting international standards,
providing clean, safe and branded hotel accommodation for people travelling on
business, leisure and visiting friends and family.
David Lenigas, Executive Chairman of Lonrho, commented:
"This new hotel project between Sir Stelios and Lonrho starts the roll-out of
easyHotels.com throughout Africa. easyHotel.com Rissik Street (a Lonrho Hotel)
will be the first of many hotels designed to give Africans and visitors to
Africa a first world hotel experience at a budget price starting from as low as
US$29 per room per night. There is a large gap in the market for a quality
budget hotel and the easyHotel.com room offering is ideally suited to fill this
much needed gap across the Continent.
"Lonrho is already a significant brand name across Africa. We believe that
combining it with the "easy" brand, which is well-known for highly successful
budget operations, to create the Lonrho easyHotel.com chain will satisfy the
growing demand from consumers across the continent."
Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, Chairman of easyGroup, commented:
"easyHotel is all about simple comfort and great value . So I`m delighted to
bring our first African hotel to Johannesburg. The city has a wealth of
attractions and events of interest to both leisure and business visitors, and
this new easyHotel will allow them to enjoy the best of what Johannesburg has to
offer - without the expense. I`m confident that easyHotel fans will soon be
putting South Africa on their destinations wish list.
"I`m looking forward to working closely with David Lenigas and his team as we
begin bringing quality, value-for-money services to Africa."
- Ends-
Enquiries:
Lonrho Plc +44 (0) 20 7016 5105
David Lenigas
Geoffrey White
David Armstrong
easyGroup
Richard Shackleton +44 (0) 20 8150 9061
Panmure Gordon +44 (0) 20 7459 3600
Tim Linacre
Dominic Morley
Adam Pollock
Hannah Woodley
FTI Consulting
Edward Westropp +44 (0) 20 7831 3113
Georgina Bonham
Notes to Editors:
About easyHotel
easyHotel is a well-established chain of budget hotels based in London with
hotels spanning from as far north as Edinburgh and as far south as Dubai,
focused on delivering high quality, international-standard bedrooms at an
affordable price. Typical easyHotel customers seek a modern, comfortable bedroom
for the night, placing a higher priority on exceptional value rather than the
peripheral services that make traditional hotels more expensive.
easyHotel.com has a sophisticated booking system that allows customers to access
discount room rates. Rates vary based on how early the booking and how much
demand there is for a particular date. This pricing approach enables
easyHotel.com to provide highly competitive accommodation rates starting as low
as US$29 per night.
About the easyHotel.com Rissik Street site in Johannesburg CBD:
The City of Johannesburg`s regenerated CBD is expanding rapidly and the unique
prime location will catapult easyHotels.com to being amongst the leading
internationally branded hotels in the City.
South Africa`s luxury department store Stuttafords opened its first Johannesburg
store on Rissik Street and Pritchard Street in 1893. The ten storeys tall
building was one of the first skyscrapers in the Johannesburg CBD, ensuring that
today the former Stuttaford`s building remains a major landmark of Johannesburg.
Situated at the corner of Rissik and Pritchard Streets and is across the road
from a busy retail centre with retail stores such as Jet and Edgars and the
Johannesburg High Court, this is one of the most high profile locations in the
country and truly a great location from which to launch easyHotels.com into the
South Africa market.
Lonrho has signed a 30 year lease with Afhco on the Stuttafords site. The Afhco
Group, founded in 1996, is a leading investor, developer, and manager of
affordable housing and commercial property in the Johannesburg CBD. Afhco
currently owns 62 buildings in the Johannesburg inner city, representing
approximately 3800 rental apartments and about 300,000mSquared of retail,
commercial and light industrial space. They have a further 1000 residential
units under development for 2012, bringing their total residential rental
portfolio to near on 5000 units with a total portfolio value of approximately
R1.6 billion.
3 April 2012
South African Sponsor
Java Capital
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