Pandox places its trust in NH Hotel Group to operate two emblematic hotels in Brussels

• NH Hotel Group has entered into an agreement with Pandox, a leading northern European hotel property company, for a variable lease, under long-term arrangements, of the BLOOM! and Berlaymont hotels in Brussels, situated strategically in the city centre and close to the European Commission Headquarters respectively
• The two hotels, which between them have 519 rooms in addition to a broad offering in the meetings and events segment, will begin to be operated by NH Hotel Group in February 2018; they offer significant upside via agreed investments in repositioning and integration within the Group’s sales and revenue management platforms, coupled with upbeat forecasts for the Brussels market
• These additions, together with the hotels signed up recently, evidence increasing demand from hotel investors keen to analyse opportunities for joint growth to benefit from NH Hotel Group’s model and flexibility
• Including these two new incorporations, NH Hotel Group currently has 32 projects in the pipeline which will add around 5,000 rooms in Europe and Latin America between 2018 and 2021
• Eight out of ten rooms recently signed up will be operated under the firm’s premium brands - NH Collection and nhow - in keeping with the Group’s strategy of stepping up its exposure to the upper-upscale segment in the coming years

NH Hotel Group, a consolidated multinational operator and reference in the European urban hotel segment, and Pandox, a leading northern European property company with a broad portfolio of establishments in leisure and business travel destinations, have entered into an agreement for the lease of the BLOOM! and Berlaymont hotels in Brussels. Under the agreement, NH Hotel Group will begin to operate both establishments from 1 February 2018 under 20-year leases, in which the rent will be variable and with a basket of losses to limit downside in a potential change of the cycle.

The BLOOM! Hotel, which features an extraordinary design, offers a combination of 305 rooms and extensive capacity - 2,000m2 - for hosting events and meetings at a central location in downtown Brussels. The Berlaymont Hotel, meanwhile, with its 214 bedrooms and seven meeting rooms, is strategically located next to the European Commission and close to the European Parliament and train and metro stations that service all of Brussels.

Against the backdrop of the transaction, the parties have agreed a series of investments in order to rebrand the hotels and bring them up to the brand standards of NH Hotel Group.

By repositioning the two hotels and integrating them into NH Hotel Group’s powerful sales and revenue management platforms, coupled with their privileged locations and bright prospects for the destination, there is substantial scope for enhancing the profitability of both establishments.

“NH Hotel Group has been analysing numerous opportunities for organic growth in recent months, as a result of the confidence generated by its business plan and the appetite among hotel investors for the Group’s flexible business model, most especially in the premium segment” underlined Ramón Aragonés, CEO of NH Hotel Group, who went on to add, “our well-diversified presence by both geography and segment, extraordinary operating capabilities, efficient salesforce and excellent profit margins are highly valued by benchmark sector players of the calibre of Pandox, a firm which shares our vision and capacity for growth”.

Thanks to these two new incorporations, NH Hotel Group currently has 32 projects in the pipeline which will add around 5,000 rooms in Europe and Latin America between 2018 and 2021.

During the last months, the Company has signed up new hotels which will be operated under long-term leases with variable rents or management regime in Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Peru, Mexico and Cuba. In this respect, it is worth highlighting NH Hotel Group’s strategy of further increasing its exposure to the premium segment, which is translating into growth in the portfolio of establishments operated under the nhow and NH Collection brands. Indeed, eight out of ten rooms recently signed up belong to one or other of these two brands. The premium segment pipeline includes recently signed projects that will see the nhow brand enter in Peru (Lima) or a new nhow hotel in Germany (Frankfurt). NH Collection brand is being reinforcing its presence in Spain (Valencia) and Germany (Frankfurt), and will introduce the NH Collection brand in Cuba, via a new hotel in Havana, among others.

These and other projects join a broad portfolio of projects under development, including establishments as emblematic as the nhow hotels planned for Amsterdam and London, both of which are located in iconic buildings designed by prestigious architects Rem Koolhaas and Norman Foster respectively, the future nhow Marseille in France, a new nhow hotel in Santiago de Chile, as well as landmark NH Collection establishments such as that being built on Madrid’s Gran Vía, the first NH Collection hotel in Chile and the NH Collection Murano in Italy, among many others.

The Company continues to take advantage of its current strengths to expand its geographic presence - subject to rigorous profitability criteria - in both consolidated destinations and new high-potential markets, hand in hand with first-class partners and framed by sustainable long-term agreements.

About Pandox

Pandox is a leading owner of hotel properties in Northern Europe with a focus on sizeable hotels in key leisure and corporate destinations. Pandox’s hotel property portfolio currently comprises 122 hotels with approximately 27,000 hotel rooms in eleven countries. Pandox’s business is organised into Property management, which comprises hotel properties leased on a long-term basis to market leading regional hotel operators and leading international hotel operators, and Operator activities, which comprises hotel operations executed by Pandox in its owner-occupied hotel properties. Pandox was founded in 1995 and the company’s B shares are listed on Nasdaq Stockholm. www.pandox.se

About NH Hotel Group

NH Hotel Group is a world-leading urban hotel operator and a consolidated multinational player. It operates close to 400 hotels and almost 60,000 rooms in 31 markets across Europe, the Americas and Africa, including top city destinations such as Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Bogota, Brussels, Buenos Aires, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, London, Madrid, Mexico City, Milan, Munich, New York, Rome and Vienna.