Scandic Hotels establishes a presence in Estonia

Scandic Hotels establishes a presence in Estonia Today, on 26 April, Scandic acquired 51% of the shares in the Estonian hotel company, Finest Hotel Group. Finest comprises four hotels with a total of 227 rooms. Two of the hotels are located in Tallinn, one in Otepää, and one in the holiday resort of Pärnu. The two Tallinn hotels will be rebranded to Scandic Hotel before the summer, and will thereby be incorporated into Scandic's operations, sales and marketing systems. "Establishing Scandic in the Baltic states is a natural step in our growth," says Roland Nilsson, Scandic's President and CEO. "We are seeing an increase in business and leisure travel between the Baltic states and the Nordic countries, and Finest's hotels, particularly those in Tallinn, have made a good name for themselves with both Nordic and other international travellers. The hotels are in good locations, are of a good standard and will fit in very well with the Scandic chain as a whole." The Finest Hotel Group reported a net turnover of EEK 90 million in 1998, with a pre-tax profit of EEK 5 million. Other owners include Finest's President, Toomas Sildmäe, who has a 14% holding. Toomas Sildmäe will continue as President and will also hold a seat on the company's Board of Directors. The hotels comprised by the acquisition are the Hotel Palace and the Hotel St Barbara in Tallinn, with 83 and 53 rooms, respectively, the Hotel Karupesa in Otepää, a popular winter and summer resort, approximately 230 kms from Tallinn and which has 29 rooms, and Rannahotell in the summer resort of Pärnu, with 62 rooms. The development plans include extensions to the hotels in Tallinn by a combined total of 90 rooms. Scandic Hotels AB is the largest hotel operator in the Nordic region, with 126 hotels in 10 countries. Scandic's strategy is to be a dedicated hotel operator. Its business mission is "to offer many people the highest value for money when staying in its hotels, during work and leisure". For further information, please contact: Roland Nilsson, President & CEO, @ +46 (0)8 517 352 00 Anders Lilius, Vice President, @ +46 (0)8 517 351 19 Gunnar Brandberg, Vice President, Marketing & Investor Relations, @+46 (0)8 517 352 12 or +46 (0)70 728 84 50 Toomas Sildmäe, President, Finest Hotel, @ +372 640 74 44 or +372 504 73 21 [REMOVED GRAPHICS] Scandic Hotels AB (publ) Box 6197, SE-102 33 Stockholm, Sweden. Tel: +46 (0)8 517 350 00, Fax: +46 (0)8 517 352 80 E-mail: info@scandic-hotels.com, Internet: www.scandic-hotels.com Org. no.: 556299-1009 ------------------------------------------------------------ Please visit http://www.bit.se for further information The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/1999/04/26/19990426BIT00250/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/1999/04/26/19990426BIT00250/bit0002.pdf